Mass Destruction
by King Under the Mountain
Summary: Oh no! I've been sucked into the Mass Effect universe with little more than the clothes on my back, and no weapons but my wits. Let's see how much hell I can raise. OCxTali MShepxAshley for now Currently rated T with language.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the characters from Mass Effect. That honor belongs to Bioware, the gods of RPG.

Prologue

Rain. Here it's both wet and cold. I'm used to it though. Comes from living in Huntington, also known as the Seattle of West Virginia. However, getting used to something is a far-cry from finding it pleasant.

Goddamn rain.

Well, before I continue, I'm quite sure that you're curious as to who I am. My friends call me by my last name, Strider. I just don't feel like arguing the fact. I'm nineteen years old and a sophomore in college, majoring in Physics. I've led a relatively normal life. You know, decent upbringing, decent education, good friends and parents. The works.

Naturally, I'm exactly the kind of person that the universe likes to screw over.

Making sure that my London Fog coat was buttoned and that my hood of the jacket underneath it was up, I dash out of my dorm building, hoping to make it to the science building before I got too soaked. Unfortunately for me, Brian and his group are persistent enough to stand out in the rain, waiting for me.

This particular guy has a bit of a...grudge, I guess I could call it. I'm really regretting making that remark about his haircut. And his girlfriend. In front of his girlfriend. I still have bruises from the last time he attacked me. So does he.

My flight-or-flight response kicked in at the sight of them. Take a good guess as to which one my body chose.

My legs pound up and down as I run towards the nearest building, easily outpacing the jocks by a fair distance. I skid to a stop at the door, sliding my school ID through the scanner. Thankfully, technology does not spite me today. I rip the door open and charge in.

After a few seconds, I realize that they're no longer following me. But something's off. The walls are gun-metal gray, as well as the floor. I don't remember any building on campus that looks like this.

Proceeding further down the corridor, it opens up into a large room that looked like a marketplace of sorts. However, that was not the strangest part. At each of the kiosks were turians, salarians, volus, and just about every other Mass Effect race. I can only gape and say the only thing on my mind:

"What the hell?"

* * *

After wandering around for a while, I finally wrap my brain around the fact that I'm on the Citadel. Though I'm still not sure how I got here, at least I'm not completely lost. Might as well enjoy this hallucination while it lasts.

Checking what I'm carrying, I'm surprised to see that I still have everything that I had before. The same now-outdated clothes, my bag, laptop, cellphone, and money. I don't think I can trade in my money for credits. I'm pretty sure that now it's just worthless paper. Shit.

Now that I think about it, I don't even know when I am in the Mass Effect timeline. I could have landed two years after Saren was killed. Although a quick look out a nearby window disproved that theory, as there was no wreckage.

I head down to Chora's Den, the one and only bar in the first Mass Effect where anything happens. I'm about halfway there when I realize I don't have any money on me. _Crap, I can't get anything._But then I shrug and continue on my way. I'm about to open the door when something cylindrical presses against the small of my back.

"Give me all your credits," a voice with a slight flanging effect demands from behind me.

My heart skips a beat. I steady myself with a few deep breaths. I quickly analyze the situation as best I can. There's a mugger behind me, so I can't see him. And it's definitely a 'him'. And he is a turian. I smile as I realize that he just made a mistake.

He put his weapon within my reach.

I spin on my heel, left arm leading. A simple push angles the pistol harmlessly away, and my right fist slams into the turian's face. The attack is accompanied by the crunch of a broken bone and face plates.

"Ow!" I hiss, shaking my now-bleeding hand. The turian mugger only groans in reply. I pry the pistol out of his hand, shoving it into a large enough pocket in my coat. I glance back at the prone criminal and shrug. Then I help myself to his credits. I pocket about two hundred credits.

"Well, that should be enough for some f-" I start to mutter as I open the door to the bar. Or try to. Before I touch the mechanism, it opens and a form rushes into me, knocking me unceremoniously onto my ass.

"Oh, Keelah! I-I'm sorry!"

Shaking my head, I glance up to see a quarian looking down at me. More specifically, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. I grab her offered hand, "No problem. Just a slight bump."

"Oh, alright. That's good," Tali mutters, "Excuse me." And with that, she slips around me.

I start to go into Chora's Den, but stop. _Ah, hell with it. I'll go watch Shepherd save Tali._

So I spin on my heel and head in the same direction she had gone.

* * *

I manage to follow Tali without her noticing, right into the alley where she was supposed to meet with Fist's agents. Fortunately, it was dark, so I find a nice cosy corner to watch the action from. Why is it that stuff like this always takes place in places like this? Well, duh, they don't want to get caught.

The agents are already there. The turian walks up to Tali, "Do you have the information?" All the while, he was checking her out. Hairs rising on the back of my neck, I continue watching. The more this conversation goes on, the more creeped out I get. Adrenaline starts pumping into my blood as I wait. Why? I don't know. Apparently my body knows something I don't.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" Tali finally asks.

"They'll be here," the turian replies nonchalantly.

"No way, the deal's off," Tali stated, a sudden fire in her voice.

I looked around. No sign of Shepherd. Something's not right here...

My gut starts twisting in anticipation. I have to do something!

Tali tosses a tech mine at the salarians before diving behind cover. And that is my cue. I let out a feral shout and leap at the turian. Momentarily surprising him, I tackle him and violently snapped his head to the right. At that I stop.

I just killed a living being with my bare hands. Without hesitation. I was never like that before. Is something messing with my head?

I heft the turian's dropped assault rifle and fire on one of the others. Surprisingly, I manage to nail one I was aiming for, but it only depletes the salarian's shield. A subsequent burst kills him. Tali quickly drops the remaining assassin with a few shots from her pistol.

Dropping the assault rifle, I sigh and stand up shakily, "Well, that was-"

But I stop when I see the barrel of gun pointing at my face.

"I remember you. I bumped into you back at Chora's Den," Tali states, now cautious, "Who are you? And why did you follow me?"

I raise my hands slowly, "If you would kindly put the gun down, I'll gladly introduce myself," I glance at the pistol before continuing, "And give you an explanation."

The gun stays in place, though her hands twitch a bit. I sigh. _Time to lie through my teeth,_"Fine. My name is Robert Strider. After I bumped into you, I noticed these creeps follow you after you left. I assumed that they had less than honorable intentions," I arch an eyebrow, "That good enough for you?"

Tali doesn't say anything, but she does lower the pistol slightly. I exhale in relief, "So what are you gonna do now? It's obvious that this Fist guy betrayed you."

She still doesn't say anything. So during that time, I decide to search the assassins' pockets for cash. Surprisingly, I turn up about one thousand credits between them. Pocketing this, I turned back to Tali.

"Huh, I wonder if these guys were paid in advance?" I mutter to myself.

Tali's head jerks in my direction, "Did you say something?"

"Why were you there anyway?" I ask, even though I knew full well. I have to keep up appearances. It'd just be weird if it seemed that I knew too much, "You don't exactly seem like the kind of girl who would work at a strip club."

Tali seemed stunned for a second before answering, though I swear I saw her blush, "I-I was going to trade some information to the Shadow Broker for protection."

"What kind of info?"

"Information that could damn Spectre Saren Arterius," Tali states simply.

"Is that so? Then I may know somewhere safe you could go," I grin, "I hear the people at the human embassy are looking for any kind of dirt on a certain turian."

Tali cocks her head to the right, "The human embassy?"

"Come on, I know the way," I say, snatching up another pistol from one of the dead salarians and sliding it into my jacket pocket as I did.

* * *

You know, the Presidium doesn't look half bad. Too much white for my tastes, but I can see the aesthetic appeal here. I let my gaze drift upwards, following the clear lakes that dot the construct all the way up one of the station's arms. I vaguely remember that there are no fish in any of said artificial lakes. An annoyed grunt brings me back to reality.

We're sitting down on a bench outside the embassy, with Tali looking irritated.

I glance towards her, "Yes?"

"You said that we would be going to the embassy, but we're sitting out here," she gives me a glare, "This had better not be another trap."

"Calm down, Tali. We're waiting for the guy who needs the info to go into the embassy," I respond, and then chuckle, "Besides, who would try anything up here?" I pause, my smile disappearing, "Don't answer that..."

That seemed to settle her down, at least for now. For now, I examine my new companion. The game did not do justice to Tali's envirosuit. What before was simply a purple hood, I can now see subtle swirls of black lines weaving a dizzying pattern into the fabric. The dull grey metal parts attached to the suit seem to shine compared to the dark violet of the rest of the outfit. Although I still find it a bit disconcerting that she only has two fingers and a thumb.

Tali took notice of my observing, flinches, and turns away, "Why are you staring like that?"

"Sorry, I was just admiring your hood. I don't think I've ever seen a pattern like that before," I reply. It's an honest answer. This is the first time I've seen something like it in real life, "Is it handmade?"

"Yes," she says quietly and shifts slightly, "My mother made it."

Now it's my turn to flinch, "I'm sorry."

That seems to confuse her, "Why?"

"I'm fairly good at reading body language, and I can tell that this is something that you really don't want to talk about," I answer. After that, talk between the two of us dries up almost instantly.

Tali turns back to me a minute later, and then gasps when she sees my hand, which is still bleeding, "You're injured?"

I shake my head, "It's fine. It happened right before I met you. Some idiot decided that it would be a good idea to try and mug me. You probably saw him sprawled on the ground on your way out of Chora's Den."

She gives an exasperated sigh, opening up her omni-tool and applying a small amount of medi-gel. I watch with amazement as the cuts on my knuckles seal up in an instant. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a man in black armor head into the embassy, followed closely by a turian and a krogan.

I stand up and stretch, "Time to go Tali."

She simply nods.

* * *

As we approach the door to Udina's office, I can hear Mr. Political Shitstorm from the other side.

_"What do you mean you lost the quarian? She was your only lead!" _his voice thunders.

A second, calmer voice replies in a more professional manner, _"We interrogated Fist and got her location, but when we got there, we only found bodies and some red blood. Someone found her before us."_

Tali glances at me, "Why aren't we going in?"

I raise an eyebrow, "Don't you have a sense of the dramatic? I'm waiting for the perfect moment."

She grunts and shakes her head.

_"Well, you need to get back out there and find her."_

At this point, I open the door and stride in confidently, "I believe that will be unnecessary, gentlemen. She's with me."

Everyone in the room spins on their heel to look at me. Wrex just gives me a sidelong look. Udina glares at me, "Who the hell are you?"

I ignore him, holding out my hand to the black armored human, "My name's Strider, at your service. You must be Commander Shepard."

Shepard is a hair short of six feet, although he's still taller than my five-eight. Other than that, he's the default Shepard. Suffice it to say I was only slightly disappointed. A lot of times when I played Mass Effect, I really didn't feel like customizing Shepard's appearance. Call me lazy.

The soldier blinks a few times before shaking my hand, "How do you know who I am?"

"Please, your one of the most well-known humans in Alliance Space," I state, "Even a deaf and blind man would know who you are."

"But I'm rambling," I continue, "May I have the pleasure of introducing Miss Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," I sweep my hands in Tali's direction. She shuffles from foot to foot nervously, "I believe that she has some information that you require."

The human representative starts to open his mouth, but I interrupt him again, "Oh, and by the way, Representative. You're welcome," And with that, I turn around and march towards the door, stopping only to say, "If you need me, I'll be at Flux, as I'm assuming Chora's Den is now a smoking ruin."

Udina's mouth simply hangs open for a few seconds before he recovers enough from his shock to close it. I'm grinning like a fool as the door closes behind me. But it disappears right away. I'm still trying to determine whether today was the worst day of my life or the best. Eh, fifty-fifty. Bad because I almost got mugged, good because I got to meet Tali and Commander Shepard in person. If this is a hallucination, it's a damn good one. I still feel the throbbing in my right hand.

* * *

**Author's note: Alright, potential readers, this chapter is actually a reboot of the original one. I just added some things here and there to try and not only make it more interesting, but also make it longer. Just so you know, I know no one in real life named Brian. He is completely fictional.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I still do not own the rights to the characters of Mass Effect. That privilege belongs to Bioware.**

**A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to post the new chapter. I've been swamped with school work. Hope you enjoy the latest installment of Mass Destruction. :)**

Chapter 1

Flux turned out to look exactly like what it did in the game. I just hope the bartender doesn't have crappy repetitive dialogue. _We have some quasar machines, just over there._ Crap. Now it's stuck in my head. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the drinking age on the Citadel was eighteen. And the recruitment age for the Alliance military. Coincidence? Hmmm...

Anyways, I sauntered up to the bar and ordered a light beer. Just as the drink was delivered, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Glancing back, I saw dark armor out of the corner of my eye. I grinned and turned around fully, "Lo and behold, the mighty Commander Shepherd has decided to seek out little old me. One must wonder why." Though honestly, I was really curious. I didn't think I made _that_ much of an impact.

Shepherd smirked at my sarcastic comment, "Tali told me how you rescued her. She was very descriptive. And I gotta say, it take the balls of a krogan to attack an armed turian barehanded. And win."

I shrugged, "I had the advantage of surprise, not to mention that adrenaline does wonders."

Why was I getting a sinking feeling in my stomach? I assumed that he was going to ask me to join his team. Oh, well. Time to put my acting skills on the line.

I took a sip from my glass as Shepherd started talking again, "I'd like you to join my team." I pretended to choked on the alcohol.

I coughed, "What?"

"You may be young, but you've got courage and skill. I think you'd fit in just fine," the commander reiterated. I opened my mouth to respond, but he clapped his hand on my shoulder, "It's settled then. Meet us at the elevator in the C-Sec office in three hours."

And with that, I was left alone with my beer. I blinked a few times in fake surprise, in case Shepherd looked back. But then I grinned, chugged the rest of the beer, and got up, slipping my credit chit into the scanner.

I've got a few hours. Might as well go get a new outfit.

-(this is not supposed to be read, this is simply to seperate sections)

It took me a while, but I managed to find my way to a clothing store. It was fairly small, but still had a good bit of a selection. As I opened the door, a buzzer went off. I sighed. I guess that, even in the future, store owners like to remind you that they are watching you. In very annoying ways. I politely said "Hello" to the asari behind the counter before proceeding to browse.

I picked out a knee-length black coat, complete with a hood, as well as a shirt and a pair of pants that were a bit more "modern-looking". A pair of boots completed the look. I also purchased an omni-tool, nothing fancy, just something to get the job done. Which they conveniently sold in the same store.

Sitting down on a nearby bench outside of the store, I started fiddling with the omni-tool. After five minutes, I found the the extranet browser. After entertaining myself with Annoying Orange videos for about half an hour, I checked the time. I still had a full hour until I was supposed to meet with Shepherd's group.

I decided to head for the C-Sec building, ignoring Conrad Verner on the way. When I got there, there was no sign of any of them. So I messed with the omni-tool again. It was actually fairly easy to use. The holographic keyboard was set up just like a keyboard on a 21st century computer. I was looking through an online codex that was suspiciously like Wikipedia when the main doors of the office hissed open.

Looking over, I saw Shepherd, Ashley, and Wrex sidle down the stairs. I waved to them. Shepherd nodded and motioned for me to follow. Slowly, I felt despair creep into my mind when I saw where they were heading.

The Dreaded C-Sec Elevator of Slowness.

It took all of my willpower to not scream and run away.

-(this is not supposed to be read, this is simply to seperate sections)

Ashley tilted her head towards me as the elevator door closed, "So who's the kid?"

In response, I gave her a withering glare. Being called a kid is one of my pet peeves. Unfortunately, my effort was in vain, as she simply ignored it.

Shepherd gestured towards me, "Ashley, Strider," he switched over to her, "Strider, Ashley."

"So he's coming with us, I take it?"

"He's okay in my book," Wrex chuckled, "You missed a hell of a ballsy scene back in your representative's office. The kid here brought in the quarian, basically flipped off Udina, and then left to go get a drink." _Twitch._

Ashley was dead silent for three seconds. Then she snorted and burst out laughing, "Damn! Did either of you record that?"

Shepherd grinned, "Of course. Almost missed it, though." He opened up his omni-tool and pressed a few keys. Everyone's omni-tools beeped as the video was sent, including mine.

Suddenly, I thought of something. I licked my lips, "Uh, Commander? Who else, besides us, did you send that to?"

Shepherd's smile grew wider, "The entire crew of the Normandy. And Udina."

My jaw dropped, and Ashley and Wrex laughed all the harder. The krogan slapped me on the back, "Close your mouth, kid. It'll attract bugs." _Subconscious twitch._

"Oh, and welcome to the Alliance Military, Serviceman ****** Strider," Shepherd added.

If it was physically possible, my chin would have hit the floor.

-(this is not supposed to be read, this is simply to seperate sections)

The elevator finally reached its destination. I was tempted to rush out, fall to my knees, and start kissing the platform, but that would have to wait.

Waiting for us at the dock were Captain Anderson and Udina. I gave Udina my best evil grin. He just scowled, but I saw Anderson chuckling under his breath.

Udina proceeded to brief Shepherd on the mission parameters. Though personally, I believed that it should have been the captain doing the talking, as Udina had nothing to do with military operations. I simply nodded my head when the representative told the commander that Anderson was standing down and leaving the ship to him.

"Remember Shepherd, your actions affect humanity's image."

"Sorry to interrupt, sir. But is it not your job to clean up the shit that we stir up?" I asked innocently, adding in another devil smile for effect.

Udina paled before whipping around and heading for the elevator at a dignified, yet hurried pace.

We watched and waited until the elevator doors were firmly shut before laughing again. I turned around, only to see Shepherd pressing buttons on his omni-tool. I facepalmed while everyone else clutched at their sides.

-(this is not supposed to be read, this is simply to seperate sections)

If there is anything that I can say about the SSV Normandy, it would be that it is just that much more epic in real life. All over the corridor leading to the cockpit, glowing terminals line the walls. I vaguely heard Shepherd talking to Joker. _Note to self: Introduce self to Joker some point. See who has the darker sense of humor._

I was snapped out of my stupor by a tap on the shoulder. I shifted my neck so I could look behind me out of the corner of my eye, and saw Tali. I gave her a lop-sided grin, "Hey Tali, what's up?"

"After I presented the evidence, not much," she shrugged, "You?"

I responded with a shrug of my own, "Nothing dangerous. Got some new clothes, an omni-tool, some beer," I gestured to the hall around us, "So what do you think of the ship?"

The quarian's eyes lit up with excitement (more so than usual, mind you), and she started talking faster than her translator could keep up. Something about "drive core" and "small" slipped through. So in other words: I was completely fucking lost. I really wish that life came with subtitles.

"Uh, Tali? Tali slow down," She stopped and blinked, "Your translator's not working."

The little skin that I could see through her polarized visor spontaneously became flushed. So I wasn't imagining things earlier in the alley, "I-I'm sorry. Sometime I get a little carried away with...uh...um..."

"Techno babble?" I offered. She quickly nodded in agreement. I draped an arm across her back, "Don't worry about it." Tali's face darkened to an even darker shade of...purple? I'm not quite sure what a quarian's natural skin tone is, "You mind showing me around the ship?"

"N-Not a-at all," she managed to stutter. I let out a hearty laugh before leading her away from the people that were giving us strange looks.

"So Tali, was the Council as shocked as I thought they'd be?"

Tali's eyes widened, "You _bosh'tet!_ You knew that I would have to speak in front of them?"

"You'll have to catch me to kill me!" I yelled. I quickly dashed out of the CIC, Tali hot on my heels.

**A/N: Alright, that's a wrap on Chapter 1. For those of you wondering, the story will slow down more once Strider gets settled on the Normandy. I'll try to get a new chapter up as soon as possible, but as I said, I've been swamped with homework as of late. Review please :)**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hey guys and girls, I'm back and I must say that I'm sorry it took so long. I am proud to present the third installment of Mass Destruction.**

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the ME characters. So Bioware, please don't sue me.

Chapter 2:

*KA-CHUNK*

_Pause._

*KA-CHUNK*

I grinned as I fastened the last bolt into the wall. Across the garage bay, Wrex and Ashley were giving me strange looks. I ignored them as I tied a pair of rope loops to the bolts. Then I flopped myself onto the hammock. No way was I using one of those sleeper pods.

One look at the cramped mechanized beds and I made up my mind. I remembered what happened to the crew of the _Hunter-Gratzner_during Pitch Black. I shivered as I thought about it. However, it did get me thinking, wondering how much of my world was in this one.

During my pondering, Ashley decided that it would be a good time for some weapons training. So she shook me. I simply rolled over. Her second attempt to get me up was a swift kick in the ass. Not only did it leave a bruise on my backside, but it flipped the entire hammock over, plopping me face-first on the floor.

"Shit, Chief. That was unnecessary," I groused, propping myself up on my forearms.

She simply gave a mischievous smile before handing me a pistol, butt first.

* * *

"You do know how to use a firearm, correct?" Ashley asked.

"I know the basics, ma'am."

"Don't call me 'ma'am'. Makes me feel old," she said, her hands now on her hips.

I smirked, "Alright," I pointed the pistol towards nowhere in particular, "Ma'am."

The gunnery chief sighed, "Fine. Get ready to start shooting," she turned away, "Alright Vakarian, start the simulator. Level one."

A single, human-shaped target board popped into existence. I scowled at Ashley, who simply shrugged.

I pulled the trigger, sending a bullet straight through the target's "head".

"Too easy," I remarked, "Garrus, level five."

Six targets appeared. Except this time the targets moved. And shot back. I grinned and pulled the trigger six times. Four out of the six shots hit where intended. The other two slammed into the wall behind the targets.

I turned back to Ashley, a huge grin plastered on my face, "Got any other weapons?"

An assault rifle came flying towards my head. I deftly caught it, scowling. I didn't have much luck the first time I tried this. I said to Garrus cautiously, "Level one.

The single hologram reappeared. I shot at it. And I missed. Every. Single. Goddamn. Shot.

"Son of a bitch!" I exclaimed, purposefully ignoring Ashley and Garrus' laughter and resisting the urge to drop-kick the rifle. Carefully aiming the rifle, I tried again.

I added a trio of bullet holes to the decor of the simulator room's ceiling that day.

A rather colorful stream of curses left my mouth as I angrily threw the assault rifle to the ground. The gunnery chief was struggling not to laugh as she handed me a much thinner weapon. However Garrus made no attempt to hide his enjoyment of my predicament. He was howling in the background. I shot him a glare that could have melted steel. _I swear to God, I am going to wring his scaly neck._

The rather complicated piece of machinery in my hands was none other than a sniper rifle. With the press of a big red button, it unfolded into its full size. "Garrus, level three, if you would."

As the targets appeared, I rapidly aimed and fired, although for the third shot I had to wait. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ashley's jaw drop. Significantly. Ignoring her, I asked Garrus, "What's the highest level?"

"Ten."

I raised the sniper rifle again, "Start it."

Ashley grabbed my shoulder and offered up a oval-ish object, "I think that's enough with the sniper for now. Try a shotgun."

I took the shotgun and prepped myself. A single target appeared, and I pulled the trigger. An extremely loud **BOOM** echoed, as well as an equally loud **Crack**.

The shotgun clattered to the ground as my right arm fell limp at my side. I looked at it with bewilderment for a few seconds. _What the hell?_ I thought, but that was quickly replaced with, _**OW OW OW, SON OF A BITCH THIS HURTS!**_

* * *

I gasped and clenched my jaw as Doctor Chakwas reset my shoulder.

"Owww," I groaned.

"That's what you get for not bracing yourself, Serviceman," Ashley retorted, "But still, good work with the sniper and pistol. Shepherd usually sticks with an assault rifle, so he'll be glad to have a decent sniper. Besides Garrus, of course."

The door to the medbay hissed open as the Commander walked in. I grinned, "Well, speak of the devil..." One look at his expression halted that mid-sentence, "What's with that face? Did someone just punt your dog?"

A smile cracked across the Commander's face,"You know, you're really blunt. I just finished a briefing with the Council." Ah, and that explains everything...Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?

I made a swirling gesture with my arm, "And?"

Shepard ignored that and proceeded with what he was going to say before I so rudely interrupted, "We're going after T'Soni first. You know how to drive a Mako?"

That bad feeling solidified into a rock that slammed into my intestines, "Uhm...Give me a crash course and I should be fine. I guess," I replied hesitantly.

Shepard sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Well, that's a better answer than most of the other crew. Kaiden insisted I find a new driver. He refuses to get into the damned thing when I'm driving."

Chakwas gave a knowing chuckle. I raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't comment. Ashley simply burst out laughing. Keeping his expression neutral, the Commander spun on his heel and headed towards the door.

"Meet me in the garage in five minutes, Serviceman," he said as the door closed, "You got six hours to learn."

Testing my shoulder, I found it was well enough that it needed no more attention. So I too managed to slip away from Chakwas' lair and into the elevator, again resisting the urge to slam my head against its walls.

When I got there, Shepard and Garrus were tinkering with the Mako, presumably for some kind of virtual reality training. The turian motioned for me to come over without even looking at me. How the hell did he know I was there? That's gonna freak me out for days.

Well, all three of us clambered into the cockpit and took our respective seats. Shepard was herded to the back seat by Garrus. Apparently, the stories of the Commander's infamous driving skills had reached even the newcomers to the Normandy. Unhappily, Shepard did as he was told. Garrus pointed out the various crucial parts that I would need to know. Gas, brake, steering wheel, gear shift. Basically, the same as the car that I drove back home. As I suspected, the two of them had a simulation set up for me.

It turned out to be a virtual recreation of Therum's surface, complete with pits of boiling lava. Yay boiling lava. Exhaling, I started. Garrus was quite surprised to see how well I was doing, and even Shepard was impressed. I swerved to avoid a small, hard to see pool, managing to strike an unwary Geth with the business end of an armor plate. Finding that it didn't damage the vehicle at all, I made a point of running down any Geth that I saw. For a second, I thought I saw a little bubble like when you get an achievement on an X-Box 360. The thought alone made me crack a smile. I gunned the virtual engine and sailed over the next rise. On top of an armature. It made a crunch sound as the nine ton war machine landed on it at about eighty miles per hour, with screeching metal accompanying it.

The screen flashed: _Simulation over._Damn it. That was actually kind of fun.

When I got finished and clambered out of the Mako, all of the Normandy crew members within sight of the vehicle cheered. A replacement driver for Shepard had been found. Which meant none of them would be drafted for the job, nor would they have to ride with him. Assholes.

Shepard patted my shoulder, "Impressive, Serviceman. You figured out how to drive a Mako in..." He checked his omnitool, "Two hours." The Commander pointed towards my hammock, "Go get some rest. We hit Therum in four hours. Don't sleep in."

Immediately after Shepard and Garrus left, I flung myself onto my 'bed.' Don't let anyone say I don't follow orders.

* * *

I was up and outfitted with a light suit of armor, which conveniently fit under my coat, before my alarm went off. A sniper rifle was slung on a magnetic patch I had attached to my jacket, and a pistol clipped to my side. I calmly waited as Shepard, Wrex, and Tali made their way over to the Mako. I nodded to the quarian before clambering and plopping back in the driver's seat. Buckling in, I waited for the bay doors to open. I vaguely heard Shepard give orders to Joker, something about dropping us quickly and quietly. A tap on my shoulder told me to get ready to go.

I revved the engine and checked all of the systems. Thrusters were good, which was my main concern at the moment. Metal ground against metal as the doors opened. _Three...Two...One...Now!_ I stomped on the gas pedal and the Mako shot forward out into the open sky of Therum. For a few moments, I felt weightless. A glance back showed me that Tali was clinging to her seat as though her life depended on it. Then again, it kind of did.

Alright, start applying the thrusters...now. The Mako jerked as it started to slow its descent. More thrust applied. More shaking. Three hundred feet above the ground. Max thrust. The Mako slowed and landed gently. I exhaled, "Can we do that again?"

If I coud see her expression, I'm sure Tali would be glaring at me.

**A/N: He he. Shepard was shepherded. This took me an incredibly long time to write. Between my classes, theatre, and my job, I didn't have much time to work on this. Now that I have more free time, I estimate the next chapter in about two weeks, tops. I'm not a very prolific writer. Please don't kill me.**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: I am reading the reviews and I am attempting to improve my writing. This chapter is an experiment on that for me. Sorry it took me longer than two weeks to update, I've been busy writing down ideas for other non-Fanfiction stories.**

**Chapter 3:**

Alright, that was fun, I will admit. Dropping a 9 ton vehicle out of a ship in low orbit sounds like something out of a nightmare. Well contrary to what I may have believed before, consider me converted. It's like when you're a little kid going down the slide for the first time. Sure you're terrified at first, but then you're like "Fuck yeah!" after you go down the slide. Well, probably not those exact words, but all the same, you're still going back around to climb up and do it again. If we weren't in the middle of some dangerous mission right now, I'd ask the Commander to have Joker pick us up to do just that.

Speaking of the mission, I should probably concentrate on driving. I have to swerve to miss a rock that would have sent us hurtling into a lava pit. Alright, bad guys and lava pools. Aim for the former, avoid the latter. The Mako jumps a little bit as its tires turn an unfortunate Geth soldier into a pancake. Shepard, manning the cannon, is blasting away at the machines too unlucky to dive for cover in time.

A shadow passes over us as a carrier swoops into view to drop off some presents. If only they were the cool kind like a new console system or money. Nope, we get the armatures bristling with weapons trying to kill us. A sharp left turn spins the Mako in a complete three-sixty, avoiding a pair of plasma blasts by mere inches. Putting the pedal to the metal, the vehicle speeds forward. I hit the brake as soon as I slam into the first armature, sending it flying into the nearest lava pit. The other one I simply knock off of its legs before trying to run over it again. The crunches beneath the tires are oddly satisfying.

I stop the Mako, looking around for more Geth to crush. _Huh, _I think, _Never really thought I was into demolition derby._

A deep, throaty laugh echoed out of the back seat. I turned my head back, only to find Wrex fiddling with his omni-tool. I gave an exasperated sighed, "Will you guys stop with the fucking omni-tool recordings? How many people did you send it to on the Normandy this time?"

The old krogan grinned, "This one's going on the extranet. This is the first time I've seen someone ram a Geth armature with an rover."

I leveled a blank stare at him, "You're about a thousand years old, and you've never seen something like this before?"

Wrex shrugs, "Well, there was this time when I tangled with a thresh-"

"Can it you two," Shepard orders, though I'm pretty sure he was grinning behind his helmet, "Strider, stay focused."

"Aye, sir," I reply. I gun it as another armature crawls up over the next hill, smashing into it at the perfect angle. The force of the hit knocks its "head" off.

"Hey Command-," I start, but he cuts me off, "No you can't go back and get the head."

I sink back into my seat to grumble and squish Geth. We enter a pass with a rather obvious Geth fortification in front of us.

Wrex grunts, "Only a fool punches a nathak in the mouth. You have to sneak around and pull its tail."

I jerk the wheel to the right and enter a side pass. At some point, I'm going to have to ask Wrex what a nathak is. Probably a Krogan version of a turtle. Which means it would probably eat me alive. An image of a bag with the words 'Strider 'n Bits' came to mind. I shake the vaguely disturbing thought out of my head as I drive around the automated turrets trying to kill us.

Now that I think about it, there are very few things in the galaxy _not_trying to kill us. The hanar? Nope, that's why they have the drell. The volus? They have the turians, not to mention they could probably sue you out of everything you own. The elcor? You ever seen an elcor soldier? They move slow, but they're strong enough to punch through a vehicle's armor plating and carry tank-rated weaponry.

Still, at least humanity has earned a place by picking a fight with the turians during the First Contact War. From what I've heard of the turian military, that took balls of steel...

Damn it! I'm getting off track again. When I look around, I see the turrets were destroyed. And that the Mako is surrounded by Geth that look what I assume is about as pissed off as a machine can get.. Shepard calmly turns the cannon and opens fire.

Spotting a juggernaut coming out of cover, I stomp on the gas and ram into it. The machine cracks in half on the front of the rover, spraying the windshield with whatever the hell that oil stuff is. A simple flick of a switch clears the goo and we go back to killing. Wrex seems to be getting cranky. He hasn't gotten to fight yet.

While my attention was elsewhere, a rocket slammed into the side of the Mako. A series of blips went off as the kinetic barrier was drained. I looked at the counter. Shields still at 85%. That's good. Although I didn't expect a lousy little rocket to do that much Commander blasts the little bastard with the main gun. In my opinion, that was probably overkill. But hey, he's the Commander.

And besides, for Shepard there is no such thing as overkill.

Turns out, that rocket Geth was the last of them. Alright, we're at the part where we have to get of the rover and unlock the stupid gate. I mean, can't we blast through it? Then again, every wall and door in this universe seems to be made of indestructanium. Rockets? Nope. Mini-nuke launcher? Congrats, you left a scorch mark that'll be gone in a few seconds.

Thankfully, instead of ordering us all out of the vehicle to flip one freaking switch, the Commander sent just Wrex. The krogan groans and scrambles out of the cockpit, unhitching his shotgun as he goes. As soon as he enters the door of the gatehouse, we hear his weapon discharge and a satisfied chuckle echoes out. The gate grinds open a few seconds later and Wrex climbs back in.

Revving the engine, the Mako charges forward. Around the next corner was yet another armature. And yet another armature fell to my mighty driving skills. What? It's a military grade vehicle and I don't have control of the gun. I might as well practice offensive driving.

Well, after traversing through two tunnels and crushing some more Geth, we finally encounter something I did not want to ram. A single glowing "eye" glares at us as we come out, and the colossus charges up a shot.

"Shit!" I cry and jerk the wheel in a direction where that bolt wasn't going. Although it wasn't a direct hit, it still shears off some of the Mako's armor.

"Keelah..." echoes out of the back seat, but it was covered over with Shepard barking to keep it steady so he can line up a shot. Gulping, I follow his command. When the next shot charged up, I didn't swerve as much but still managed to avoid the shot. Meanwhile, the Commander started firing a steady stream of cannon rounds, each impacting on of the giant machine's kinetic barriers. Finally, its protection collapsed with a snap. I fishtailed the Mako so that we were facing it, and Shepard's bombardment resumed. The colossus exploded, showering the ground around it with superheated shards of metal and circuitry.

After it goes down, we are finally able to continue on our way. Until we get to the giant pile of rocks and we are all forced to get out of the rover.

Holy shit Therum is hot! I know I'm stating the obvious here, but really! I feel like I'm going to melt at any second. Mass Effect did not do a good job of imitating extreme hot or cold environment conditions. I know they look pretty and all, but all you got was that little bar that told you how close to death you were. The only bar I see here is for my kinetic barrier.

But I digress. As we round the corner, a bullet ricochets off of the wall nearest to us. Tali and I dive for cover, but Wrex and Shepard stand strong and pull out their respective assault rifles and return fire. I unfold the sniper rifle from my back and peer around the chest high stone block I'm hiding behind. I can see seven Geth, with two snipers posted up top. I get down on my belly and position the weapon so I can aim at the snipers. One pull of the trigger hits the first right in the lamp-eye and sends it tumbling backwards. The other gets the idea that there's a counter-sniper and takes cover.

"Fuck," I mutter and adjust to shoot at one of the regular Geth. By this point, Shepard and Wrex have taken down three of the seven down here. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tali pop off a few shots with her pistol. Lining up another shot at a Geth, a bullet whizzes about a foot above my head.

...Really? These Geth have terrible aim. I wasn't even moving and they missed.

I whip the barrel of the gun back up at the second sniper. Seeing the lamp-eye once again, I pull the trigger and watch as the machine's "head" bursts into circuits and oil.

"Commander, snipers are down, we can move up," I shout over the gunfire. Shepard nods, not looking away from the remaining Geth. He nudges Wrex and jerks his chin forward. The old krogan grins and charges, rifle spewing hellfire. The first robot in his way goes down fairly quickly. The remaining three put down their oddly beehive-like barriers.

A rocket slams into Wrex's side, taking down his kinetic barrier and stunning him momentarily. I immediately swing my sniper rifle in the direction of the rocket, and spot the previously unseen rocket Geth. Taking it down, I see Wrex back in the fight, shrugging off bullets like they were insects. He rams through one of the barriers and into an unsuspecting Geth soldier. The mercenary manages to regain his balance while his opponent falls unceremoniously to the ground. He's quick to finish it off with a three-round burst from his assault rifle.

The other two Geth pound him with rifle fire, only to be cut short by Shepard blowing one apart with a shotgun blast. Distracted, the other one forgets about Wrex until the krogan runs up and rips its "head" off with his bare hands. The battlefield finally quiets down as Tali and I rejoin the two soldiers.

Shepard turns to me and smirks, "Pretty good for your first firefight, Serviceman. You didn't hesitate to take down those snipers."

I beam at him, "Thanks, Shepard. Although I'm not sure we should be sitting around congratulating each other just yet," I jerked a thumb up the hill, "We still have to get Dr. T'Soni out of here in one piece."

Shepard shrugged, "Good point."

As he trudges up the hill, Wrex starts to follow but then whips around and chucks the Geth head at me, "Think fast."

Thankfully I'm paying attention and not drifting off in my thoughts again, so I deftly catch it with one hand. Stashing it under my arm, I start fiddling with my omni-tool. Finding the "inventory" option, I click it and, following the instructions, scan the Geth head. It instantly vanishes from my grip. I finally rationalize that it was digitized, not disintegrated. Looking back at the screen, I notice the memory left on the device drop by 2.2 GB. Huh. I guess that explains the inventory system in Mass Effect 1.

"Thanks Wrex, I'll be sure to make a desk lamp out of it," I remark to the krogan, "Now I just need a desk and I'll be all set. Think you can kill another armature?"

"Is there something wrong with you, human?" Wrex asks, one eyebrow ridge raised and a frown on his face, "Don't you ever shut up?"

"Blame adrenaline," I retort, "And my name is Strider, not 'human'."

The mercenary stares for a moment, shrugs, and starts to ignore me. Alright, that guy has some serious issues. It was obvious from the game, but real life...

Before I can start on a mental rant, Tali nudges me with her elbow to get me to get going. We catch up to the others in fairly short order. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Tali's gaze occasionally wandering in my direction, but when I turn to look her eyes twitch sharply in another direction.

Is she...? No, you're just imagining things Strider. I'm human, she's quarian. She's not interested in you like that...

Wait. Why am I reacting so much to a minute detail that I might not have seen?

My train of thought is interrupted yet again by everyone else scrambling for cover. Eyes widening, I dive behind the nearest box, just in time to dodge a cannon round from the armature that I had failed to notice or remember. Time for a nerd reference.

I just rolled a natural one on a spot check.

* * *

Looking up, I meet the gaze of the Geth stalker looking straight down at me. Butt of the sniper rifle pressed against the ground, I fire straight up. The round tears through the machine's relatively weak shielding. After that, the bullet apparently hit something important, because the Geth gives a horrific screech and falls to the ground. Unfortunately, I didn't really think that through all the way, as it lands on me, pinning me for a moment.

I manage to roll the dead machine off of me and rejoin the fight seconds later. While I was distracted, Wrex, Shepard, and Tali had taken down the Geth troopers around the armature and were now peppering the giant mech with small arms fire. I pluck one grenade off of my belt and toss it under the machine's left foreleg and press the detonator. The resulting explosion knocks it off balance momentarily and draining a decent amount of it shields. Tali then nails it with an Overload, which takes out the barrier completely. The rest of us start pounding it yet again until it collapses under the storm of bullets. The armature struggles to get back onto its feet, but Wrex walks up to it and promptly blows a hole its head with his shotgun.

I grin at the krogan, "Hey, a desk!." I receive a glare from Wrex, an indifferent expression from Shepard, and a face-palm from Tali.

* * *

Shepard ushers us into the mine soon after, with myself leading. I give a quick glance to the cramped tunnels and pull out my pistol. Right as we walk through the entrance, we're attacked by a trio of Geth. I open fire on the closest one, dropping its shields after five shots. Tali finishes it off with blast from her shotgun. Meanwhile, the Commander showers one with a hail of bullets and it drops. Wrex simply slams the last one against the wall, crushing vital circuity.

Moving a little more cautiously now, we approach the lift that would take us down to the mining laser. Unsurprisingly, four drones pop up over the edges of the walkway and fire away at us. I curl up behind yet another conveniently placed chest high piece of cover. After a second of waiting, I peek over and shoot at the nearest one. Two shots is enough to kill its kinetic barrier, but I miss my third shot. The fourth shot cracks the drone in half in a rather impressive display of sparks. Tali overloads the second drone with her omni-tool, while Shepard and Wrex finish off the other two in rather short order.

All of us pile into the lift, with me looking at its supports nervously the entire time. Tali notices this and asks, "Are you alright, Strider?"

I nod, "Yeah, just a little worried about this lift. That's a lot of rust."

The quarian looks at it for a few moments as the elevator starts its descent, "It looks fine, I don't know what you're ta-"

She's interrupted by an ear-piercing shriek as the lift slips and crashes down to the bottom of the (thankfully short) elevator shaft. Tali is thrown off balance by the impact and falls into me, which in turn knocks both of us to the floor. For three seconds, we're staring directly into each other's eyes, my nose just barely touching her face-plate. The skin under her polarized mask visibly flushes and she leaps to her feet and turns away, stuttering 'Keelah' under her breath. A mild sense of disappointment washes over me for a moment before I suppress it. I roll over and push myself back up just as I feel my own face start to heat up.

Looking at the other two, I note that they are no worse for wear, although apparently Shepard almost fell out of the elevator car when we hit. I'm the first one out of the elevator, but still a little shaky on the walking bit. I manage to place my self in front of the giant blue force field, only to find myself being glared at by none other that Liara T'Soni from inside her bubble.

I raise an eyebrow, "And what's with that look, Dr. T'Soni?"

The scowl only deepens, "So who sent you to kill me? I realize that my views aren't popular with many other asari, but I didn't think they'd hire a human."

I tilt my head, "Assassin? I think you're mistaken. I'm with the Alliance."

Liara's expression turns to one of shock as Shepard ambles into view, "Oh by the Goddess, I apologize!"

"Like anyone could mistake that kid for an assassin," Wrex rumbles in the background as he picks himself off of the ground. I respond by flipping him off.

"So," Shepard starts, "How did you get like that?"

"About a day ago, I was working with this control panel next to me, and I must have hit something I shouldn't. I think this is some kind of security system," she explained.

"And we can get you out of there how, exactly?" the Commander inquires, making a vertical spinning motion with his right hand, as though trying to urge on Liara's thought processes.

"Well, first you would have to find a way around the force field. If you can get that far, I'll explain what you have to do to shut it off."

I lean over the edge of the walkway that we're standing on, "Hey Commander, what about that mining laser down there?"

Shepard quickly joins me and looks down, "That could work. But we seem to have a few guests. Mind sending them home as we make our way down there?"

A cruel grin cracks across my face and I pull out my sniper rifle, "Why, of course. I'll even show them the door."

_Crack._The first of the sixth Geth falls with a neat bullet hole through the top of its head.

_Crack. _The next machine dies, but now I have to wait for my weapon to cool down. Heh. Double entendre.

Based on the trajectory of the two shots, the remaining Geth figure out where I am and start shooting. A close call with a sniper bullet drains my kinetic barrier while a pair of assault rifle rounds graze the side of my head and my right shoulder. I hiss in pain but line up my next shot.

_Crack. _The sniper drops. By the time I ready my sights again, the rest of the team is already down there pummeling the remaining Geth into submission. With a sigh, I fold up my sniper rifle and join them. Shepard is already messing with the controls to the giant death lase- I mean the mining laser. While he does that, I police the Geths' weapons and scan them into my omni-tool. Hell, I might be able to make a profit selling these things. An explosion and the sound of rocks falling draw me back to the others.

The game did not do this laser justice. The amount of destruction caused by it is far more awesome in real life. I turn to Shepard, "Can I get one?"

"Only if you can carry it back to the ship," he smirks. Well, that ends that.

We all hustle into the new opening as we feel the ground shake a bit.

* * *

_Alright, _I think to myself as the Prothean elevator rises, _Therum's almost over. We just have to grab the doc and get out._

Well, the lift finally stops after about half a minute later, and we find ourselves face-to-back with Dr. T'Soni. Shepard rushes over to the console and Liara gives him the instructions on how to turn it off.

"Alright, now hit the blue switch and turn the dial next to it counter-clock-" she's cut off by something in the console backfiring. The field dissipates around her, but she's sent flying backwards. Right into me.

I'm bowled over yet again, with Liara laying across my stomach in a daze. A second later, we're both on our feet as the mine rumbles again.

"The mining laser must have started a seismic event. The volcanic area beneath us is destabilizing," Liara exclaims.

Wrex looks at her blankly, "Layman's terms?"

She groans, "The volcano is erupting beneath our feet."

The krogan's eyes widen at that. The grizzled old mercenary is the first one back on the lift.

I notice that Tali is sticking close once again, seemingly nervous. I give her a smile, "We'll be fine. It's just a bunch of falling rocks between us and the surface."

That seems to calm her down a bit. At least until we get to the top of the shaft and find a very amused looking krogan and a few Geth.

"Shit. I hate it when I'm wrong." I have got to start remembering this stuff.

* * *

"Now," the krogan starts, "Hand over the doctor. Or don't. That'll make it more fun."

Shepard simply points and says, "Take him down."

I duck behind the nearest piece of cover and unfold my sniper rifle. Whipping around the edge of the column I'm hiding behind, I fire and take down the Geth to the krogan's right. Tali's Overloads the other one, and Shepard finishes it off. Wrex is focusing fire on the battlemaster. With a crack and a fizzle, the other krogan's kinetic barrier goes down and we lay down the hurt on this guy.

The ground shakes again, causing a multitude of rocks to rain down on our head. All of us book it out of the mine, with me pulling up the rear. I was never a sprinter, but right now I could have won an Olympic gold medal. Ahead of me, Tali trips and I hear a gasp of pain. Without missing a beat, I scoop her off of the ground and carry her bridal-style. Considering she's about as tall as I am, Tali's relatively light.

No time to think about that now. A quick glance back shows the mine collapsing and- HOLY SHIT THERE'S LAVA! Tali looks back, eyes widening. She curls up into as much of a ball as possible and clings to my armor.

"!" I pant as I try to make my legs move faster. I manage to pass Liara, Wrex, and Shepard. Hearing my cursing, they all look back. They end up passing me again a few seconds later with Wrex swearing in his native tongue. Something about promising some deity that he would lay off the ryncol.

Finally, we emerge from the mine shaft back out in the light of day. I set Tali down and we all limp to the waiting Normandy.

Tali whispers when we're safely in the ship, "Thanks."

I grin, "No problem. You should probably get your ankle checked out by Chakwas."

The quarian gives me a look and glances at the side of my head, "You should probably get that looked at."

I shrug, "'Tis just a flesh wound. I just got grazed."

But Tali will brook no argument as she drags me to the medical bay.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, I know that was more that two weeks, but I've put a lot more effort into your suggestions, especially HerrWozzeck. Thank you all for reading the newest installment of Mass Destruction. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Alright, not many reviews, but I don't mind. I'm honestly glad I've gotten over 2500 total views for this story. Also in all honesty, I'm starting this story back up again after so long because I was bored and really had nothing to do this summer.**

**Mass Destruction Chapter 4:**

"Well," Doctor Chakwas started, still examining the side of my head and applying minute amounts of medigel, "It's not a serious wound, but it was less than five centimeters away from being lethal."

_Wow_, I think to myself as the doctor starts looking Tali over, _I literally dodged the bullet on that one._

"As for you, Miss Tali'Zorah," she continues, "You just sprained your ankle. You will be fine in time for the next mission." The machinist nods, relief clear in her eyes. I suppose with an immune system like hers, getting a broken bone would be much worse than it would be for a human.

"I am all done with your injuries," Chakwas states, but she interrupts as I'm about to leave, "Serviceman, a moment of your time? I need to enter your record into the Alliance database."

I consider it for a second and shrug, "Sure."

So I sit back down while she pulls out a data pad and stylus, "Full name?"

"Robert Strider," I reply.

She scribbles it down, "Age, height, and weight? Any allergies?"

"Nineteen, five foot eight, and one hundred and sixty-four pounds. I am allergic to bees, wasps, and hornets."

"Place of birth?"

"Winchester, Virginia."

Chakwas quickly scans through what I can only assume is a generic medical form, "Blood type?"

"A positive with a ressesive O gene."

"Alright, prior combat experience?" she inquires without looking up.

"I am a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, although it's been five...six years since I actively practiced it," I answer immediately, think for a second and then continue, "I was also on a Stage Combat team for two years, though I'm not sure that actually counts as combat experience."

Scribbling again, the doc says, "No official military training, but at least you know hand-to-hand combat."

"Well, that concludes the written parts of the medical exam. Now we get to use the high-tech equipment right behind you to test for things you might not know about," she states with a pleased grin that gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I look the equipment over, making special note of the multitude of needles protruding from the various machines. I audibly gulp and I feel the blood rush out of my face. Chakwas' chuckling doesn't help.

"Scared of needles, Serviceman?" she asks, to which I only nod shakily, "Don't worry, we only need to draw blood once. Then we just scan your body."

I can already feel my veins starting to constrict and shrink within my own body. This is not gonna be fun...

Chakwas dabs rubbing alchohol on the crook of my right arm and then moves to start prepping the IV. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes, trying to calm down.

"All done."

My eyelids snap open and I blink a few times as Chakwas holds up three tubes of blood. I manage to keep my jaw shut at least, "Now what?"

"Just lay down on one of those beds there and we'll start the scans," She pointed.

Doing as I was told, I lay down, "Is this gonna get finished right as I get comfortable?"

She laughes, "I'm afraid not. The scan itself will take about one hour. So go ahead and get settled."

I sigh and shift a bit as the machinery starts up.

* * *

I yawn as I walk out of the med bay. I fell asleep about halfway through the procedure and Chakwas had a hard time waking me up after it was done. She said she almost went to search for a cattle prod.

I don't know why she bothered. I have to go back anyways in about two hours to see the results.

"Hey, Serviceman," a feminine voice says over to the side of medbay.

"Hey Chief," I respond, looking over at Ashley, "'Sup?"

"I heard the results at the briefing," the soldier grins, "Seems you made quite the impression on the asari."

I raise an eyebrow, "Oh yeah?"

"She'd never seen a human run that fast before."

I groan, "Just what did I miss at the briefing?"

"Shepard announced that we'll be making a stop on the Citadel before going on to Feros," she replied, "ETA eight hours."

I nod and stifle another yawn, "Thanks, Ash."

"Tired, Serviceman?" Ash asks, one eyebrow raised.

"I haven't really gotten any sleep since I join up with you guys," I explain as I crack my neck, "Usually I need at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep, otherwise I'm basically a zombie and drop off about halfway through the day."

She doesn't say anything to that, but instead waves me off to go rest. I salute before leaving.

I head over to the elevator, making a point of avoiding Kaiden's notice. I really don't feel like allaying any suspicions he might have of me right now. When the elevator hisses closed behind me, I breathe a sigh of relief. After a few seconds, my thoughts turn to the future. Virmire. Either Ashley or Kaiden could die.

But maybe they don't have to. Back home, I read a bunch of Mass Effect fan fictions where the writers concocted ways to save both of them. Although admittedly, some of them were pretty outrageous circumstances requiring resources I don't have access to. I guess I'll need to ponder that between now and Virmire.

The elevator slides to a halt, and I step out of the now-open door. Off to the side, I see Wrex chugging away at some large bottle of strangely-colored liquid. I will say I didn't know that particular shade of brown existed in the visible spectrum. I can only assume that it's ryncol.

"Hey Wrex," I call over, "I thought you were going to lay back on the ryncol."

He stops drinking long enough to say, "I just escaped an erupting volcano, so fuck you."

I shrug and start to walk away when Wrex states behind me, "Good work out there. For a human."

I sigh and give a glance over at Garrus. As he is during the game, he's trying to calibrate the Mako. I walk up behind him, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"I know you're there, Strider," he says nonchalantly. Goddamnit, how does he keep doing that?

I sigh outwardly, but inside, I'm laughing. I've finally found my first real challenge on the ship: Sneak up on Garrus without him noticing, "How's the Mako?"

"We have to get some new armor plates for the back where it was sheared off completely," then turian gives me a look of mock despair, "Not to mention that you messed up the paint job. However, I hear that Shepard's brought it back in much worse shape. It seems you gained some respect for that alone."

I look the battle-worn vehicle over, noting the scrapes, gouges, and burns. In Mass Effect, it always looked shiny and new. Then again, the game's graphics engine probably wouldn't have been able to support the Mako if it did.

Garrus snaps me out of my internal wanderings with a question, "Could you help me out for a few minutes?"

I shake my head back into reality, "Yeah sure, what do you need?"

"We need to replace the Mako's shocks," he gestures towards the underside, "It looks like they've been neglected for so long it's a wonder they still work."

"Do we have the parts for it?" I ask.

"Of course, I went and found some in a storage room," Garrus scoffed. I'm still having trouble reading his facial expressions, but I'm getting a strange feeling of satisfied smugness radiating off of him.

I shrug, "Let's get to work then."

* * *

So for the next half hour, we installed the spare parts. The other hour and a half was spent finding other things wrong with the Mako, such as one of the tires being flat or three of the dials didn't work. So Garrus enlisted my help yet again. Not that I mind, I mean come on! I'm sitting here working on the Mako with Garrus Fucking Vakarian!

I pull on the torque wrench, tightening the last bolt holding the eezo core in place. I crawl out from under the Mako and stretch, "All done, Garrus."

"Alright, good," the turian replies, "I think that's it. You'd better get back to the doctor."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," I grouse. I push myself off of the floor and make my way back to the elevator.

(Don't read this line.)

In about five minutes, I'm back in the medbay. I plop into the nearest chair, "So how does it look, doc?"

The left corner of Chakwas' mouth twitches at being called "doc". I should make a mental note of that for the future, "Well Robert, according to the tests you're a perfectly normal human. Nothing of note on the body scan, but there seems to be some sort of anomaly with your blood."

My eyes widen, "Anomaly?"

The doctor scratches her head, "I'm not quite sure what it is yet, but I'm going to do further tests. They should be done before we reach the Citadel."

I nod absently. Anomaly? Like anemia or something? No. By this point, humans have cured diseases that affect their species. And the anomaly wasn't there before I came here.

"Could you keep this between us for now?" I plead, "I don't want Shepard kicking me off of the ship because he thinks I might be a detriment to the mission."

She considers this for a few seconds before nodding, "I don't think Gabriel would do that, but I can see why you're concerned. Very well, but only for now."

I sigh, "Thanks Chakwas. I knew I could count on you."

A small smile creases her face, "You're welcome. Now I believe that you need to go get some rest. You look like you are about to fall flat on your face."

I give a mock groan and stumble out of the medbay. She was right. I'm exhausted. I pause right outside the door as it closes, "Shepard's first name is Gabriel?"  
On the elevator ride back down, I can't help but think: What if there was an alternate reality version of me writing a Mass Effect fan fiction and I was living it out?

I shake my head vigorously, "Nah, that's not possible."

* * *

I decide to talk to one more person before I sleep. I find Tali in her usual spot in front of the drive core. Busily alternating tapping away on her omni-tool and the console in front of her, she doesn't notice me walk up behind her.

"Hey Tali," I say when I'm next to her. The machinist whips around fast enough that she almost punches me in the stomach, "Holy shit!"

"Keelah, Robert!" Tali exclaims, then stutters, "I mean, Strider...err..."

Why was she so confused on what to call me? Oh wait, I got it now. Calling me by my last name would be like me calling her Zorah instead of Tali, "You can call me Robert if it makes you feel better."

"Okay," she says, the confusion gone now, replaced by her normal nervous attitude, "Thanks. What do you need?"

"Just wanted to talk to you before going to bed," I reply, "I didn't really get much of a chance before we got to Therum, and a battlefield wasn't exactly ideal. So here I am. How's it going with you?"

That seems to startle her, "P-pretty well."

...Well that was a conversation killer. Time for something new, "I've never seen a drive core up close before. How's it work?"

I listen as intently as I can to her techno-babble, using my own understanding of physics to attempt to piece together what she's saying. She's enjoying baffling me it seems. After a few minutes, she seems to be more in her comfort zone and I have a basic understanding on how the Tantalus drive core works.

"Hey Tali, I'm having a little difficulty using some functions on my omni-tool. You think you could teach me at some point tomorrow?" I ask.

"Sure," Tali seems to beam at the prospect of explaining more tech to me, "I should probably get back to work. See you later?"

"Yeah, sure," I smile back before wandering back to my hammock and jumping in. The instant I hit the netting, my lights went out. I instantly regret doing that.

Let me summarize that feeling that by saying that my dreams are suddenly weirder than my new reality. The same gun-metal grey walls that I was starting to get used to surround me. Only they weren't gun-metal grey anymore. Blood was spattered on the walls. Red blood. Human limbs were strewn across the floor. A headless, legless, armless corpse was propped against the wall, and more blood pooled out from it.

This is starting to look very familiar.

A far-away screech startled me, sending a shiver down my spine. The moment I whip around in its direction, I saw something I really didn't want to. In bold letters on a neon board is written: "Welcome to the U.S.G. Ishimura, Robert Strider."

I don't get scared easily, but right then I nearly browned my imaginary trousers.

* * *

After seeing the sign and the body parts, I'm freaking out right now. I'm on the Ishimura, I don't have a weapon or any kind of protection, AND IT KNOWS MY NAME! I know I'm in a dream, but I really don't want to find out if I'll die for real if I get torn apart by a necromorph in here. Looking down at myself, I notice a flashlight dangling off of my belt.

"At least I'll be able to see," I mutter, fumbling with the 'on' button. After a few moments, the lights start to flicker, "Ah, shit."

I hastily glance at all of the nearby vents, expecting a mutant zombie to pop out and try to eat my face. The screeching off in the distance continues, but thankfully nothing else happens. Calming myself down with deep breaths, I examine the room I'm in.

Four walls and two doors. A desk off to the side with a few chairs around it. And a locker. Fairly normal compared to the rest of the hell known as Dead Space...

_Wait,_ I cock my head to one side, _A locker? I didn't notice that before..._

I cautiously approach the locker and open it. To my unending surprise, there is a plasma cutter and a clip of ammo right above it.

The screeching is getting closer. I grab the mining tool and slam the ammo into the receptacle. As it hums to life, something starts banging around in the vents. I glance over the plasma cutter one last time. I notice at the last second that I forgot to turn off the safety.

I flip the switch right as a slasher bursts out of the vent on the other side of the room and rushes me. I whip the cutter up in front of me and fire the first shot blindly. It slices into the necromorph's body, staggering it for a split-second. Suddenly emboldened, I actually aim on the next shot.

_Bam. _Its right arm drops to the ground. The creature stops and looks at where its limb used to be, screeches, and charges with reckless abandon. The third shot takes its right leg. The necromorph falls to the ground, still crawling towards me. I stomp on its head.

I must have used more force than I intended, because its skull explodes like an over-ripe watermelon, spraying blood and brain matter all over my pants legs and boots. I grimace and try to shake as much of it off as I can. Sighing at the futile effort, I look back at the neon screen. It now displayed an arrow pointing at the door to my left.

"Huh, I guess the computer isn't out to get me this time," I think out loud as I open and pass through the door.

**Foreign contaminant detected. Activating quarantine procedures.**

...I hate my life.

"GODDAMNIT!" I scream as a pair of necromorphs burst from the conveniently placed vents. Unlike before, I don't fire wildly. I blast the left arm off of the first one, followed by both of its legs, effectively disabling it.

The second necromorph crosses the room in the time it takes me to down the first one. Before I know it, the putrid smelling thing is pinning me to the ground, only held away by my arms. I scream as it manages to slice open my right arm. Without thinking, I bash it across the head with the business end of the plasma cutter and fire while its disoriented. The monster goes down in a stinking heap.

**Lockdown lifted. **

...I will so find that damn computer's CPU and fry it. But right now I'm still bleeding. I tear off a piece of my shirt and wrap it around my arm to stem the bleeding.

I make my way across the room to the other door and open it. Cautiously this time, I inspect the room. A dead end. However, there are no vents big enough for any necromorph to crawl through. Maybe I can rest here for a litt-  
Something grabs both of my wrists as soon as I am in the middle of the room. I try to yank them free, but to no avail. Hot searing pain arcs down my back as something else is pressed against it. Screams erupt from my lips and all of my muscles tense in agony. I can feel tears rolling down my face from the pain.

* * *

My eyes snap open, finding the familiar sight of the ceiling of the Normandy's garage. It seems different somehow. Brighter maybe? I start to get up, but then I stop.

...Oh no.

My feet pound the ground as I bolt to the nearest bathroom. Seconds later, after puking my guts out in the nearest toilet, I'm suddenly grateful that I haven't had anything to eat since I got on board the Normandy.

A red blob drips down into the toilet bowl. Dimly, I follow the crimson trail up my right arm to the place where the necromorph got me. A single, clean cut about as wide as a needle is etched into the skin of my upper arm. It looks like it was made with a knife, but I remember all too well. As I straighten up, a flash of pain shoots up my back.

Fully awake now, I rush over to the mirror, pull my shirt off, and turn around. In the reflection, I see a one inch wide cylinder-shaped burn on my back that extends from the base of my neck to middle of my spine. A feeling of horror creeps into my mind. There is no way this can be happening. Not physically possible.

I pull my shirt back on when I hear someone walk in. A voice with a flanging effect asks, "Are you alright, Strider? I saw you rush off suddenly. Tali's worried too."

I look up to see Garrus once again. I don't have trouble seeing concern in his eyes. His gaze immediately drops to the blood dripping onto the floor from my arm, "What happened to your arm?"

"No idea," I look back at the mirror at my own face. God, I look like hell. My face is pale as a ghost (more so than usual). There are noticeable bags under my eyes. As for my eyes themselves...Wait.

My eyes were never that shade of...silver?

I accidentally cut my tongue on one of my teeth, "Ow."

Pause. I open my mouth and look in...

My canines were never that long. I have fangs now.

"You okay, Strider?" Garrus asks again. He's about to say something else when he sees the changes. He stops mid-breath and mutters, "By the Spirits..."

"Tell Tali I'm fine," I manage to say quietly.

"How did this happ-" the turian starts, but I cut him off by shouting, "I don't fucking know! I just woke up from a weird ass dream, came in here and puked my guts out, and looked in a FUCKING MIRROR! I DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING!"

I stop, seeing the hurt on his face. Or something. Like I said, I still have trouble reading his facial expressions, "Sorry, Garrus. I need some time to myself. Go tell Tali I'm fine. But don't tell her or anyone else what you saw. Please. I'll go talk to Chakwas in a few minutes."

He just stares for a few seconds before nodding and walking out. I can hear muffled conversation right outside the door. Two pairs of feet walk away into the distance.

Shaking, I clean myself up as my as I reasonably can and leave the bathroom. Avoiding the worried gazes of Tali and Garrus, I make my way over to the elevator. My legs were shaking so badly, I almost fell twice. As soon as the door closes, I collapse against the railing, barely holding myself up.

A few minutes later, the elevator pings and I stumble out and over to the medbay once again. The door slides open, and once again my legs fail me. I fall to the floor, a shaking, feverish mess. A pair of hands grabs me by my left arm and lifts me up. I'm deposited onto the medical bed immediately. I groan and try to cover my eyes from the bright lights that I'm suddenly looking straight into.

I can barely hear Chakwas gasp at something. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her staring at the screen in front of her.

"Commander, you need to see this."

So much for patient-doctor confidentiality.

* * *

**A/N: Ah, that didn't take me as long to write as I thought it would. If any of my readers want to guess what's going on with Strider, send a private message and I'll see if you're right. If you can guess the specifics of how it happened, bonus points :D I won't be writing a new chapter for a while. I'm gonna go back and rewrite the first few chapters. Looking back at them, I realized that I did a pretty crappy job with them, and that's probably discouraging more than a few readers. Until next time, Read and review please.**


	6. The King and the Horse

**A/N: Alright ladies and gents, I couldn't stay away from writing chapter five of Mass Destruction. I had too many ideas in my head to keep them all there, so here's my attempt to put them into words. Kind of sad at the lack of guesses though :(**

"There, that should bring your fever down," Chakwas says as she injects something into my arm, "The shaking should follow soon after."

"So was this what you called me down here for, doctor?" Shepard asks impatiently, arms crossed. Thanks for the concern, Commander. I really appreciate it. This must have interrupted something pretty important if he's like this.

"Once the Serviceman can see straight, I'll show you. I assume that he would be especially interested in this," the doctor replies cooly. Damn it Chakwas, don't talk about me like I'm not here! I'm nauseous, not deaf.

I barely gulp down another wave of nausea as I sit up. Thankfully, a wave of coolness flows through my body as the medicine takes effect, calming my raging stomach. I groan in relief. Nothing like a debilitating case of nausea to top off the rest of the shit going on around me. There are really only two things that could make this worse: my roommate showing up, or a dancing monkey named Bobo throwing feces.

God help us all if either one happens.

Alright, getting distracted again. Nerves are causing me to bounce around inside my own head. I breathe in, and then exhale, "Alright Chakwas, give me the bad news."

Instead of arguing with me, like I expected, she presses a button on the console and a panel pops up with an image of a double helix, "It concerns your DNA."

"Looks normal to me," Shepard grunts.

"Which one of us has several degrees in medical practice, Commander?" Chakwas asks with a raised eyebrow and a slightly amused expression. When Shepard didn't answer, she nods and says, "I thought so."

"Anyways, I was analyzing your DNA and I found something interesting," she presses another key. The image zooms in to a group of individual "steps", "It seems that only half of your amino acids are human, or even levo-acid. The other half seems to be dextro-acid. Judging from your appearance, quarian DNA would be my guess."

I can see Shepard's jaw sag at the same time mine does, "How is that even possible? I mean, aren't the two incompatible?"

Chakwas taps her lips with a pen, "I must confess, the reasoning for this eludes me as well. It is a most curious situation. And medically fascinating..."

A cold shiver runs down my spine as I hear those words. "Medically fascinating" is a phrase you really don't want to hear when you're currently a freak of nature. Apparently, Chakwas notices me break out into a cold sweat, as she quickly ends her next thought before voicing it. Shepard however, remains as blunt as only a soldier can get.

"If its something that can be beneficial, we should give him over to the Alliance..." the soldier starts to say.

"Hey," I interrupt, "Does the freak of nature get a say in the matter? I mean, I've seen those vids where the government gets ahold of something like me. I don't have a interest in scalpels or cutting or slicing. I like my organs right where they are. I am not a science experiment!"

A stunned silence permeates the room for five seconds.

Shepard opens his mouth to say something, but I slam my fist onto the table and continue my rant, "I have rights! If you try to take me in, I'll walk out that airlock right now and save you the trouble of killing me!"

I start to move for the door, but Shepard places himself between me and the door, "If you would let me finish, I was going to say that yes we _should _give you over, but I'm not going to sacrifice one of my crew."

"You proved yourself on Therum, Strider," he continues, "You didn't even pause when you saw your first geth. You just pulled the trigger and kept going. Hell, you didn't panic when we had to fight that armature on foot."

"I can understand that you're distressed about this, so go take some time to think about it. When you're ready to talk about it, come find either Chakwas or me."

With that, the Commander walks out. I nod slowly and follow suit.

* * *

**Tali:**

I heard the words, but I don't think I can believe them. A DNA set made up of half levo and half dextro? It's impossible! The normal reaction alone would have killed anyone! So how is he alive? Maybe the machines made a mistake? No, the Normandy's medical scanners are top of the line, so that's not an option.

Then it is possible?

The Commander's next words cause dread to spread in my mind. _Give him over to the Alliance._They seem to echo endlessly around me. No! I won't have it!

I'm about to leave my hiding place and walk in when I hear Robert's thundering reply through the thick metal wall. I can only blink as I listen to it in its entirety. Keelah, he's really fired up about this. I had no idea that he would go that far to avoid that.

"Eep!" I quietly squeal as the door slides open and Shepard strides out. I shrink back into my corner as he passes.

Shortly after, Robert follows. He seems distracted and doesn't notice me either. He has a blank look on his face. I'm slightly disturbed by his now-silver eyes. They are the exact same color Mother's were. I shake the thought away.

I consider going out and talking to him, but...no. He has enough to worry about without me prying into his thoughts. As the elevator doors hisses closed behind him, I creep out of my hiding place.

"So you heard all of that, I assume?"

I nearly jump out of my suit when I hear the doctor's voice behind me. No point in denying it. I dip my chin nearly to my chest and mutter, "Yes."

The middle aged woman gives a soft smile, "You were worried about him, it's nothing to be ashamed about. But now that you know that about him, what will you do? He could be the salvation of your people. He shows none of the signs of a diminished immune system. He is as robust as a normal human, and shows certain quarian qualities."

"I don't know what I'll do," I say meekly, "But I know what my father would do if he found out. I don't want that to happen."

Chakwas shrugs, "No matter what, that boy has a strange fate in front of him. As for what will happen, only time will tell."

* * *

**Robert:**

I stare at the railing as the elevator starts to descend. For once, I'm glad for its sluggishness. It gives me some time to myself. I give a mirthless chuckle. I'm fucking half quarian. My eyes glow in the dark, I've got fangs, and who knows what else. Not that I have anything against quarians.

_Yes you do. Well, maybe not directly. However you hate the fact that you were forced to become something you're not. Maybe it's somehow their fault. Maybe they did something they shouldn't, just like with the geth..._

I shake the thoughts out of my head. No, the quarians are good people. A little hardheaded when it comes to politics, but good all the same. But the unbidden thoughts surface again.

_Maybe, maybe not. Then again, you keep finding reasons to doubt this universe and your place here. You're even doubting Commander Shepard._

Shepard. He claimed that he would never sacrifice one of his crew.

_But what about Virmire? You already know that he sends someone to their deaths, so why did you take him at his word so readily?_

I blink. Those aren't my thoughts.

_Of course they are. _

Who said that?

_Look up._

I glance up at the nearest reflective surface in the elevator, and I see something rather familiar. It's me, but at the same time, it isn't. It looks like me, but dressed all in white. It has white hair, snow-white skin, blackened fingernails, and yellow eyes with black sclera.

Who the fuck are you?

_I'm you._

Like I'd believe that.

_Just like you wouldn't believe that you're in Mass Effect?_

...Touche. But last I checked, I wasn't that much of a freak.

_Oh but you are. See, when you were getting violently sick, that was your body catching up to your new surroundings. When you talked to Chakwas just a few minutes ago, that was your mind catching up. And it fractured from the revelation. And thus I was 'born' I guess you could say. You're becoming what you've always feared. You always wanted to be left alone, but now I prevent that. I'm always with you. Whether you like it or not._

Great. Now I have a psychopath in my head.

_Call me what you will, but I am a mental manifestation of your deepest thoughts. There was always a side of you that wondered what would happen if you took a different turn. Why you were always so fascinated with playing a villain, watching the heroes fall._

It's called playing both sides.

_Ah, but is that not what is happening right now? You are the good side, and I am the bad?_

Damn it, why does my evil side always have to have a point?

_Because the darker side is more suave? Remember, I am your ambition, as well as your regrets. Put two and two together, and I have had years of practice doing the things you did not. All because you thought of doing them. Each moment, each incident, was catalogued in your mind. From simple things like asking out a girl, to fighting down the urge to take that pocket knife of yours and slice someone's jugular._

That's oddly specific.

_I have access to all of the memories that make up your life and experience. I can't be anything but specific. _

You said it yourself, your a mental manifestation. You don't exist.

_But what if neither of us exists? What if there is a third party, a neutral? Maybe we make his moral decisions, like a little angel and devil sitting on his shoulders. And we both know they're imaginary. Maybe like me, you're only a few moments old._

But you said you have access to all of **MY **memories. Which implies that I exist. That's right douchebag, I win. Even the good side has a point sometimes.

The evil personality's face shifts to a deep scowl.

_It seems I misspoke. Very well, believe what you will. But either way, I'm still here, watching. Waiting._

That's not creepy at all, I think to myself. The elevator dings as it stops.

See ya, asshole.

A grin penetrates the scowl.

_Soon we will need to decide who is the king and who is the horse. And this will be a most interesting game._

* * *

As soon as the elevator opens I rush over to my hammock and grab my sunglasses out of my bag. Hey if it worked for Scott Summers, it should work for me. The light is back to the brightness it was when I was still fully human.

I never realized the spectrum on which a quarian can see. There are colors that humans have no name for. Why do the quarians polarize their masks? It seems a waste! Maybe I should ask Tali after I can build up the nerve to talk to her.

"You alright, Strider?"

"Yeah," I reply, "I'm doing better, Garrus."

The turian crouches so that he's at eye level with me, "So what happened?"

I bite my lower lip as I think of whether or not to tell him. Garrus is good at keeping secrets, and from the game, I know he's trustworthy. Ah, hell with it.

I lower my voice so Ashley and Wrex don't hear, "Chakwas did a DNA scan and they found something interesting. It turns out half of it is quarian."

Garrus' mandibles flare wide. This is quite possibly the first time I've ever seen him speechless. If I wasn't in a state of mental distress right now, I'd be taking advantage of this.

As though just realizing it, Garrus retracts his shocked expression. He sort of just stares at me expectantly, waiting for a further explanation. When he figures out that he isn't going to get anymore out of me concerning that, the detective decides to change the subject, "So is anything different?"

I shake my head, "Aside from the obvious changes, I haven't noticed anything else."

"I'm not sure what to expect. I mean, this has never happened to anyone before. For all I know, I might turn into some type of monster."

_Maybe, maybe not. _

Go away.

_I can't, I live in your head._

Why can't you be like normal voices and shut the hell up when I tell you to?

_Because I am my own entity?_

...You have an answer for everything, don't you?

_Everything that you'll ever ask._

...Dick.

_I am you, so technically you just insulted yourself._

GODDAMN IT!...Okay then, smartass, what would you do if you had a body of your own?

_Everything that you wouldn't...Maybe Tali..._

Oh hell no! You leave Tali out of this!

The Other gives an empathic shrug, _Fine._

A snapping sound brings me out of my mental argument, "Hey, wake up Strider."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm back," I say with a shake of my head, "Just kind of wandered off."

_Bullshit._

Shut up! Dick...

_You did it again._

GODDAMN IT!

"So Garrus, I got an idea I'd like your help with," I manage to say with out giving away the silent argument.

"Sure, I still owe you for helping out with the Mako. What do you need?"

I start to say something, but then realize that I would have a hard time explaining it without a visual representation, "Hold that thought." I reach over into my bag and pull out my sketchpad and pencils. I settle back down into my hammock and start drawing. It takes a bit longer than I thought, but I finish the drawing.

_It looks like shit._

I hold the book up to Garrus, "So what do you think?"

"It...kind of looks like a turian sculpture," Garrus admits after a bit of thought.

...That's not exactly inspiring. That's some ugly shit. Anyways, its a basic design, so I don't expect much from it.

"That's not the point. Garrus, I'm gonna need a welding kit, three sniper rifles from the armory, and a hamburger," I state with a grin.

"Hamburger?" Garrus asks incredulously.

"In case I get hungry," I grunt and continue, "Ah, nevermind. Just get the rifles and the welding kit."

* * *

Five minutes later, I'm hard at work dissecting the sniper rifles, removing the heat sinks from all of them. The welding torch hot in my hand, I slice a piece out of the stock of one of them.

"Shit," I mutter as the torch slips slightly, causing it to burn through too much of the metal. I growl and throw away the now useless weapon. I pick up the next one and repeat the process. The blue flame cuts smoothly through it this time, making a perfect rectangle large enough to house a heat sink.

Finished with that part, I put the rifle down and pick up the scraps. Holding them over the torch, I heat them just enough so that each piece is malleable. Using tongs and an old-fashioned hammer, I beat the piece into the desired shape. Taking up a soldering tool, I join the individual pieces together to form a skeletal version of a three-shot revolver mechanism. I quickly insert the mechanism into the new gap, and weld it into place. I also acquire a small motor from the requisition officer and connect it to the revolver.

The most exhausting part of it is over. But now is the most meticulous part. I take up the soldering tool again, along with the scraps and the heat sinks, and connect the heat sinks to the mechanism. I put down the soldering tool and pick up a case of screwdrivers and wrenches. Prying open the main body of the rifle, I start making modifications to the rifle's normal cycling system, adding and subtracting pieces where needed.

Satisfied with my work, I close up the weapon and clean off my hands. I pick up the modified sniper rifle and gesture for Garrus to follow me.

* * *

Emerging into the training room with Garrus in tow, I lift the rifle and pull back on the bolt. The rifle gives a satisfying whrr as it shifts to the next heat sink. The weapon is noticeably bulkier now, but it still weighs about the same.

"So what did you need me for?" Garrus asks, his face betraying his interest in the modification.

I take aim at the nearest target and pull the trigger. The shot misses horribly, "I need you to calibrate it. The extra mass threw off the aim. Everything needs to be adjusted."

The turian gives a mock sigh and holds out his hand. I gently place the weapon into his grasp. He pulls a tool kit from his pocket and sits on the ground. I watch with intrigue as he uses tiny screwdrivers to make minute changes to the sights and various dials.

After a few minutes of adjustments, Garrus hands the weapon back to me. I try another shot. Dead on. A grin slowly spreads across my face. Time to put it through its paces. I fire the second round and overheat the heat sink. Pulling back the bolt, the second heat sink rotates into position. Two more rounds go off. Another heat sink overheated.

Another pull of the bolt rotates the third into line. I sink two more rounds into the target. Retract the bolt, and I'm back to the first heat sink. I go through the entire process again. And again.

By the time I stop, the barrel is literally melting. Seems a basic sniper rifle can only handle eighteen back-to-back shots before it's ruined.

"That's not good," Garrus remarks.

"Well, duh," I quip, "Looks like the barrel needs to be made of something stronger...maybe a tungsten alloy?"

He mulls over it for a few seconds, "It's worth a shot. No pun intended. Still this...revolving heat sink mechanism has potential. If a bit difficult and expensive to reproduce."

"It'll end up being more efficient than any other handheld weapons in production. And besides, we've already proven that it'll work," I reply smugly, "I could try and apply this to other types of weapons."

"Let's see if you can solve the barrel problem before moving onto that," Garrus chuckles.

"True, I can only work so many miracles in one day," I barely stifle a yawn, "I'm feeling tired. See you later, Garrus."

"Yeah sure, go repair some eyesight and cure a plague," the detective jokes. I stop dead in my tracks. Wait, what?

* * *

**A/N: Alright, this chapter was a little shorter than I planned, but I still got in what I wanted to get in. If you're confused, that's completely fine. So am I. And yes, I am aware that the Tali point of view thing has been used before. Read and Review please! Constructive criticism is welcome, but please no flaming.**


	7. Through a Nightmare, Darkly

**A/N: Alright, I'm back with Mass Destruction ch.6. Got a good review and a not so good review. I will attempt to explain the whole "half-quarian" thing, so don't crucify me just yet. Flaming is not appreciated/unnecessary. If you don't like it, don't read it. I'm writing this for me and people who want to read it. Flaming makes me a sad panda. There, I said it. I've been seeing that phrase a lot in ME SIs, so I figured "What the hell, why not?" Although I'm using it just in the author notes.**

Chapter 6: Through a Nightmare, Darkly

I've still got about four hours until we get back to the Citadel. It's kind of funny. I haven't been on the Normandy for more than a day and already crazy stuff is happening. Dreaming of Dead Space, finding out I'm half quarian...well, it's not normal, to say the least. Anywhere else, and I'd be locked up in the loony bin faster than I could say "I just want to go home" and click my ruby-red slippers.

And now I've got a psychopathic alter ego running around in my head, a mental manifestation of my regrets, ambitions, and rage. I never thought I'd use the phrase "inner demon" in such a literal sense.

Well I just got done with the weapons test, so I'm running the analysis on the revolving heat-sinks' performance. The mechanism itself works just fine, it's the weapon that's the problem, "I'm right, Garrus. No matter what simulations we run, no matter the situations, it's the metal of the barrel. It can't handle the sheer amount of heat caused by the friction of rapid sniper fire."

I take a drink from my iced tea while the turian thinks it over. Finally, he sighs in defeat, "Fine. But the materials needed to reinforce the barrel, they're going to jack up the price."

"I'm not intending to make these in extremely large numbers. I like to think that the military would prefer efficiency and quality over quantity," I say with a smirk. I look down to the results of the test, "I'd say we'd need to use...tungsten. Maybe a tungsten-titanium alloy."

Garrus nods in agreement, "That would definitely work. But how are you going to get the credits to buy the components?"

I shrug, "I was going to see if I could pawn a few of the geth rifles I picked up on Therum. There's gotta be someone that wants them to hang up on a wall somewhere."

I stand up and stretch, "Well, I'm gonna go try and get some sleep. Later Garrus."

* * *

**Garrus:**

I watch Strider as he walks away. I can't understand him right now. I mean, he just found out he was half quarian. A veritable freak of nature. Yet he just acts as though nothing is different. Guess that's a human thing, being able to take the most unbelievable stuff in stride without skipping a beat. Shepard believes whole-heartedly that the Reapers exist. But Strider's not just human any more.

I can't decide which is the more shocking revelation.

The door of the simulation room slides open again, and I look up. A now-familiar helmeted head poked through the open doorway, "Hey Tali."

"Garrus," she says simply. I can see from her eyes that she's worried. It's not hard to guess about what, "Was everything okay?"

I sigh and run a talon across my face, "He seemed...almost cheerful. Like nothing happened, and everything was normal."

"Denial, maybe? That can't be healthy for him," Tali immediately replies. I'm a little taken aback by the mixture of concern and confusion in her words. And also the words themselves. Did she eavesdrop on our conversation earlier, or Strider's meeting with Doctor Chakwas?

Either way, I'm not going to interrogate her. That will only make things worse. I gesture to her, "Come here. I'd like you to take a look at this."

I set the now-useless sniper rifle on the table for her to inspect. She picks it up and expertly turns it, examining every detail, "Looks normal, except for this little...thing here. What is that?" She asks, pointing at the revolving mechanism.

"Strider made that. He called it a revolving heat-sink mechanism," I explain, "It's ingenious, actually. It allows you to increase the rate of fire by switching out the heat-sink and letting it cool down while inserting another one and still leaving the weapon capable of firing."

Tali looks inside the barrel and says simply, "It's melted."

"Yeah, after testing it, we found the barrel melted after eighteen back to back shots," I admit, rubbing the back of my head, "We've already come up with a possible solution for that, but we'll see when we've gotten the materials."

Tali and I trade technobabble back and forth for a little while before she decides to go back to engineering. I rub my forehead as the door closes behind her. There's too much craziness going around this ship.

* * *

**Robert:**

Alright, now that I'm alone again I need to find a solution to another problem.

_Namely me._

Did I ask for your opinion? I don't even know what to call you.

_Trebor._

Wait, what?

_Your name backwards, dumbass._

You just insulted yourself.

_And notice how I'm not getting worked up about it like you do._

….

_Bad guys five, good guys one._

You don't have to be a jerk about it.

_I kind of have the right to. You know, with the whole mental manifestation of your inner evil thing._

Ah...Oh.

_And finally, the last horse crosses the finish line. _He claps. _Way to go. I thought you would have figured out most of the things that I've told you by now. But then again, you have more emotions and feelings clouding your thoughts than I do. I only represent three of your emotions, so I've got less to deal with. _

I am tired of your disingenuous assertions. I'm going to bed.

* * *

You know, I'm starting to see a pattern with these dreams. I'm not on the Ishimura this time, but I am no less scared out of my wits. No, instead I'm inside of High Charity from Halo 3 during the flood infestation. Now normally, I wouldn't be scared in this particular situation. Then again, the last time I saw this one I was playing a seven foot tall super soldier. I am not a super soldier, and all I've got is a magnum and my light armor. I almost threw up when I saw where I was. The only real reason I didn't was that I mentally reminded myself that I really didn't want to clean vomit off of myself when I woke up. _If_ I wake up.

A bullet slams into the ground next to my foot. I nearly jump out of my skin as I dive for cover. I lean out and see a single human Flood combat form, armed with a magnum. I line up my own at the insta-kill spot on its chest and pull the trigger. The recoil throws the bullet off target, so the shot rips into the monster's right shoulder. Dropping its weapon, it lets out a moan and leaps impossibly high in the air. I fire a second time, and catch it in the leg.

The flood form lands on top of me and pushes me to the ground. Its now inhuman mouth snaps at my face. I scream, using my left arm to keep it at bay. I manage to squeeze my knee under it and push the creature up, just enough to fit the magnum in and press the weapon against its chest. A quick pull of the trigger silences the flood form. I roll it off of myself and scramble away from it as fast as possible. I lift my right hand, only to see that its shaking badly. I struggle to my feet and stumble over to the dropped magnum. I silently slide the clip out of the weapon and stash it in a pocket.

"If that was just one flood form," I mutter to myself, "I'm gonna be in real trouble when one of the brutes comes around..."

I'm interrupted by more moans echoing throughout the cavernous room. I curse and duck back down, waiting a second to peer out. A former Elite shambles down the ramp towards me. I don't know if it saw me, but I'm pretty sure it heard that scream a few seconds ago. I should probably attack first. I jump up and open fire. The pistol barks three times before clicking empty.

"Shit," I curse again as I eject the spent clip and load the other one, "Damn these magnums and their small clip size."

Meanwhile, the flood has started shooting back. I hiss in pain as one blob of plasma narrowly misses my left arm. I fire three more times, finally dropping its shields, and plant another round into its weak spot. Alright, I'm down to the last two rounds in the clip. I slip the weapon onto the magnetic clip on my waist and pick up the fallen Elite's plasma rifle.

...I just realized that I have no idea how to work this thing. It doesn't have a trigger. I squeeze the handle and a blob of plasma rockets towards the ceiling. Looking back at the weapon, I groan. The readout says "00"...It was down to its last shot?

The skin on my left arm is burning, so I spare a glance at it. The bodysuit is completely melted away, revealing a second degree burn about the size of my thumb. The sound of moaning draws my attention back to the other flood. Seeing no more use for it anymore, I chuck the spent plasma rifle at the nearest flood form. The grunt catches it straight in the face and pitches backwards, which in turn trips the one behind it. Before I can think, I find myself charging forward. I use the second flood form as a stepping stool and jump up into the air, drawing my pistol as I go. I point the magnum at the first one and finish it off. When I land, I shoot the second one in the back, piercing through the tougher part of the armor. I then punch through the rest and pull out the wriggling infection form and crush it in my hand.

I have to pause for a moment, "I don't know how the hell I did that, but damn that was badass!" I see the ten or so more flood forms shambling towards me, "...And now I'm out of ammo."

I notice they are all unarmed, "Huh, maybe I can take them in hand-to-hand comb-" Then a tank form bulls through all of them, "...I hate my life."

Before I can even think of diving out of the way, an energy sword flares to life next to the behemoth. The unseen wielder slashes it across the monster's face, slicing cleaning through and dropping half of its head to the ground. I can only watch dumbfounded as the rest are easily dispatched by the invisible warrior. Huh, I wasn't expecting help in this one.

As quickly as it came, the energy sword vanished, leaving me to fend for myself once again. I shake myself out of my stupor. I need to get a new weapon. I look behind me and spot a familiar ledge. Pelican. Duh.

I make my way around the corpses and into the still functional Pelican dropship. I scrounge through the weapon racks, salvaging an SMG with a full clip and six extras, along with more ammo for the magnum. I give a dubious look to the flamethrower sitting on the ground. There is no way on God's green earth that I'll be able to lift that thing. I'm about to exit the slightly damaged vehicle when I notice something sticking out from behind one of the weapon cases. I shift it all out of the way, and my jaw drops. Its a Japanese katana. Why the hell it's here, I don't think I'll ever know. Then again, this is a dream, so pretty much anything is possible. I tie it to a belt and sling it over my shoulder.

Now that I'm armed a lot better, I've calmed down quite a bit. I check to see if my omnitool still works in here. To my surprise and joy, it does. I tap a few buttons, and Warrior by Disturbed starts blasting out of the holographic interface. I click the SMG's safety off and walk back into High Charity with a smirk on my face.

* * *

Alright, I've managed to get to the next level down, thanks to the mysterious energy sword wielder. He ends up taking most of them, while I finish off the stragglers. I press the eject button and slide another clip into the receptacle. Three clips down, four left.

I step through yet another of those slim "doors" and into the next room. I remember this are a bunch of dead Elites spread around. I ready my SMG for the expected swarm of infection forms. And right on time, they flood in. No pun intended.

I pluck a grenade off of my belt and roll it towards the middle of the group. Three...Two...One. Boom. The lot of them die in one magnificent explosion.

One of the Elite's behind me stirs and groans. I whip around and almost pull the trigger, but I stop when I see the red armored Elite rub its head, as though chasing away a hangover.

The Elite opens his eyes, "Where am I?"

I can't help but laugh, "Wow, the first living thing I find in this place, and it's a split-lip."

His eyes narrow, "Human."

"Alright, that last part was a bit much," I admit, and hold out my hand, "You still able to walk? Or am I gonna have to be a big damn hero and carry you out?"

The warrior growls and stands up, snatching up his plasma rifle. One look around the room is enough for his rage to start building even more, "My brothers..." He looks at me, "Did you do this?"

"No. That was the Flood."

He grunts, "Then I have no quarrel with you. My fight is with the Gravemind tonight."

"Maybe you'd appreciate some help?" I ask, "I've got no idea how I got here, but something's telling me to go deeper."

He looks me up and down, "Very well, human. Tell me your name, and I shall tell you mine."

I shift the SMG in my hands, "Robert Strider. You?"

"Oda'Mykrai," the Elite recited proudly.

"Mykrai? You're a swordmaster?" I ask.

"You know much that a human should not, Robert Strider," Oda replied suspiciously. Then he noticed the katana slung across my back, "What is that?"

"This? It's a human blade, called a katana," I draw the blade. Oda stiffens. Oh, right. Elites have that whole "draw a weapon only if you're willing to use it" thing going on. I ignore it and hold the blade out to him hilt-first. He hesitantly grabs it, and a surprised look appears on his face as he does different tests with it.

"It is marvelous, although unwieldy," Oda says without looking away from the weapon.

"That's because humans only have one thumb, so it makes using a weapon like an energy sword uncomfortable at best, excruciating at worst. We had to make due with what we've got."

"Why have I never seen a human with one of these before?" The Elite inquired.

I shrug, "That's because most humans don't use them anymore. We stopped using blades like that about seven hundred years ago, so they're pretty rare." I grin as he continues to stare at the sword, "You can keep it if you want."

Oda blinks and then nods his head, "Thank you, Robert Strider. It will be a fine replacement for the sword that I lost." He makes a few experimental cuts with it, and then made what I can only guess is a smile, "I can adjust to this."

I pass the sheath and belt to Oda and roll my shoulders, "Well, shall we continue? And call me Strider."

* * *

Well, now that I've got help, this isn't proving to be as difficult or mind-wracking as the Ishimura. Oda rushes in first, hacking left and right, with me following, firing five round bursts at off-balance enemies. Another tank form rushes towards us, but I bring it down with an inferno grenade.

"Oda, down!" I shout and fire. The Elite ducks at the last second, and the bullets slam into a former Brute, tearing into the infection form nestled inside. It falls to the ground with a thud. Oda slashes another flood form in half, and makes a gesture with his left hand. I pull a plasma grenade off of my belt and toss it to him. He primes it and sticks it to the face of a former human before Sparta-kicking the monster into a group of them. The entire group vanishes in a flash of blue light.

Suddenly, the entire room goes sickly green and everything slows down, _CHILD OF MINE ENEMY, WHY HAVE YOU COME?_

_Um...This is not the human you are looking for? _I reply. It's the truth. I think.

The Gravemind gives a huff, _IT MATTERS NOT. YOU SHALL DIE ALL THE SAME._

I shake my head as the giant zombie plant monster leaves, "Well, the Gravemind knows we're here. We need to move faster."

Oda'Mykrai nods and wipes the blood off of the katana before sheathing it. As we leave the room, I spot a Covenant Carbine lying on the floor. I check it for ammo. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that it still has a decent amount left in the cell. Considering what pops up later, I think we're gonna need it. I sling the weapon onto the magnetic clips on my back. At the other side of the room is the hole that will take us to the big circular room filled with tank forms. After I fall down the ten foot drop, I slip the carbine off of my back. I peer into the scope into the next room. A pair of the long range tank forms are set up on the right side of the room and three on the left, all clinging to the ceiling.

"On the count of three, I'll open fire on the bastards clinging to the ceiling. Cover me," I whisper to Oda. He acknowledges with a nod.

I start a countdown with my fingers. Three...Two...One. Open fire. A trio of energy bolts burrow into the closest archer form, dropping it quickly. I shift to the next one and repeat. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice more of the regular flood forms heading towards us. I pass a pair of inferno grenades and a plasma grenade to the Elite before resuming.

Third one down. Half of the power cell is left. I pull out the magnum and nail one of the combat forms that got a bit too close to me. I can hear one of the inferno grenades go off and the accompanying roar of a dying tank form.

Bam bam bam. Four down, one to go.

One of the needles from the last archer slams into my left shoulder, throwing my next three shots wild. I scream in pain and rip the spike out, blood spurting onto the ground. I pause long enough to apply some medi-gel. The wound numbs instantly and closes. I glare at the monster through the scope and fire again.

Oda lets out a war cry and slashes his way out of a group of the zombie mutants. He's covered in cuts and scrapes, but otherwise isn't injured. I toss the carbine aside and pull out the pistol. My arm is a bit too damaged for me to use the SMG at the moment. I fire into the back of one of the combat forms and kill it.

Everything slows down again, _YOU ARE FORMIDABLE, YOUNG THING OF FLESH. BUT...AH, IT SEEMS YOU HAVE A WEAKNESS, THIS TALI..._

My vision starts turning red, _Don't you dare lay a tentacle on he_r,_ you monster!_

The Gravemind's laughter fills my head. Gaddamnit, you will not get Tali! I charge towards the nearest Tank form. It tries to slash at me with one of its pincers, but I jump and land on its appendage, firing three shots directly into its face. As it staggers back, I climb up its arm and onto its head, where I fire two more pointblank shots into the top of it head. The creature stops moving and slumps to the ground. I discharge the spent ammo clip and ram another into its place. I exhale, releasing the anger. I get way too worked up.

Oda finishes the last of his foes and limps towards me. I raise an eyebrow and open up my omni-tool, "Let me take a look at that wound."

Oda growls and lashes out, "I shall not be dishonored by any doctor's cutting."

I sigh, "I don't need to cut, so don't worry. That wound on your leg is going to slow our progress. If not tended to, it might end up crippling you."

The stubborn Elite grunts and stops struggling. I apply some medi-gel to the major wounds and restore full mobility to Oda's leg.

He stands up wordlessly and readies his weapon, a silent "let's keep moving."

* * *

We finally make it to the core of High Charity, the giant circular room with the pit in the middle of it. I have full use of my left arm back, so I'm using my SMG again. A horde of former brutes and humans charge towards us. I lay down some suppressing fire as Oda rushes in, cleaving through the zombies. We clear the platform that we are standing on in minutes.

Several more rush across the makeshift bridge in the middle of the room. I gun down two, and Oda gets a few with his plasma rifle. We both fire on the last one, and the room falls into a temporary silence.

I breathe a sigh of relief, "Well, now what?"

"We have to destroy High Charity," Oda answers immediately.

"Let me guess, we need to chuck a few grenades at those things sticking out of the ceiling?"

"Correct."

"Mind if we hold off on that for a few minutes?" I ask, a nagging feeling in the back of my mind.

Oda gets a serious look on his face, "Explain."

"I think there's something here in High Charity that I need to get before we turn it into a new sun, something important," I clarify, pointing to a door that leads deeper into the space city.

Oda looks into my eyes for a moment, saying nothing, "Fine. I shall accompany you in this. Then we destroy High Charity."

I smile, "It's a deal, then. Come on."  
We make our way across the walkway to the other side of the reactor room, only to find more flood pour out of the unopened door. My SMG barks eight times and several of them fall to the ground, while the rest fall prey to Oda's blade. I knock the now-empty clip out of the weapon and load in the next one, "I'm down to my last clip."

The Elite walks over to one of the weapon racks and pulls down a carbine, then turns around and tosses it to me, "Thanks."

I scrounge some ammo for it before putting it on the mag clips, and we walk through the doorway. The hallway ahead of us is empty, but I'm still expecting more flood to burst from the walls, Dead Space style. Oda notices me clutching the SMG.

"You are not a warrior, are you?" He asks quietly.

"No actually, I'm closer to a scholar, a scientist. Not the most honorable profession, from what I know of your people's views," I reply hesitantly.

"Are all of your scholars trained as such?" The alien inquires, surprise evident on his face, "If so, it is a wonder that your species have not won this war already."

"No, I just had some...unique circumstances," I answer truthfully.

I just barely hear him mutter, "Perhaps the views of my people are flawed."

We reach the door before the conversation gets any farther. It slides open with a light hum. It's just like the game. The dark room, the dais in the middle. But there was one little difference.

No Cortana. Instead, sitting on the dais was a golden orb about the size of a baseball.

...Wait. Is...is that the Piece of Eden from Assassins' Creed?

I quickly cross the room and pick it up. A jolt of energy crawl ups my arm and settles in my chest. It fades after a few seconds, but damn that hurt! Oda stares at the orb in wonder, "That was not here the last time I was. Do you know what it is Strider?"

"No clue," I admit. I mean it looks familiar, but it could end up being something else entirely, "Well, whatever it is, let's go turn this place into a sun."

* * *

We race back to the reactor room. I pass a pair of grenades to Oda while I prep two of my own. Pressing the button, we wait for the reactor cores to become exposed, then we chuck our payloads. They each explode with a strangely satisfying flash of light.

"Alright, time to run like hell," I yell over the explosions.

"Where are we going? My squad's Phantom was destroyed," Oda shouts back.

"There's a Pelican dropship a ways back, and it looked like it was still working."

More Flood pour into the room. I exhaust the current clip in the SMG halfway across the bridge and I slide in the last one. One tank form blocks the way, so I chuck my last inferno grenade at it and run past. I hear it stumbling around before falling. Oda is right behind me, cutting down the occasional Flood form. He didn't go out of his way to hunt them down, as we were still trying to escape from the exploding vessel.

A few minutes later, we're at the platform leading up to the Pelican. I've discarded the SMG and I'm now alternating between the carbine and the magnum. We push through the horde like a knife through butter, scrambling into the cockpit of the dropship. I stop for a moment. Was there just a third set of steps?

I shake my head and dive into the pilot's seat. For some reason, I seem to know how to operate this highly complicated piece of machinery, even though I've had no training whatsoever. The engines sputter for a second before blasting to full, lifting the metal behemoth into the air. A tentacle briefly brushes across the windshield. Oda gets knocked off of his feet as the craft lurches forward, away from the soon-to-be sun.

"That was a battle worthy of an epic back on Sanghelios," Oda states proudly, then bows his head, "Rest peacefully, brothers."

"We definitely gave them a hell of a funeral pyre," I point out, "That's certainly more grand and honorable than any human king would have gotten. At the least, the Flood are dead for good."

"Were it so easy..." The Elite mutters.

"Well, now wh-" I start, but then a bright flash of light obscures my vision.

I woke up.

* * *

**Oda'Mykrai:**

My eyes open slowly. I feel the sun beating down on my skin, so I am alive. But I feel sand at my back. I roll over and look around. Strange plant life and an ocean. A strip of sand extending farther than I can see. Something is wrong here. This is not the Shield World, or any Halo installation. I see no sign of Strider, or even the dropship.

I takes me a few seconds to realize that I am still clenching the sword that Strider gave me. The human who saved me. That is hard to wrap my mind around.

I hear the sound of a motor, similar to the one used in the human "Warthog". I know not if they are friend or foe. I would rather not take the chance. It seems for the first time in my life, I must act the prey, at least until I can find Strider. He already seemed to know more than he should. Especially about my name.

Maybe he has an answer to this madness.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, I managed to squeeze a bit more creative energy out of my brain. I probably won't update for a while, what with college and all. So I'll try to post the chapter up as soon as possible. Read and Review please!**


	8. Paved With Good Intentions

**A/N: I know it's only been a few days since I posted last, but here is Chapter 7 of Mass Destruction.**

Chapter 7: Paved with Good Intentions

My eyes snap open and I gasp for breath. I'm back in the garage of the Normandy, with my hammock tied in a knot around me. As I struggle free, I feel something slip out of my hand and fall to the ground with a metal clang.

...Clang? Was I even holding anything metal when I went to sleep? I peer through the rope hammock at the fallen object.

I don't fucking believe this. A certain golden orb is sitting on the ground, wobbling as it stops its roll. How in God's name did the Piece of Eden get here? I manage to untangle myself and pick it up. I spare a quick glace around. Okay, no one saw it. Whew.

I settle back into the hammock and examine the orb. It doesn't look special, just shiny. Hmmm...I concentrate on an image of Wrex for a minute or two. Nothing happens for a second, then he lets loose a thunderous belch. Guess the whole mind control power doesn't work here. Or the creating duplicates power, as I find out when I try a second later.

I shrug to myself. Guess it's just a really fancy paperweight now. I chuck it into my open bag and wince slightly when it lands on my sketchpad. Wait...

If the Piece of Eden is here, then maybe Oda...No, everyone in the garage is still alive, so I guess he's not. Probably for the best. I really don't want to have to explain what the hell he is and how he got here.

Ash is working on the other side of the garage from me, so I shout over, "Hey Ash, what's the ETA to the Citadel?"

"Hour and a half," Is the reply. I groan. More time to kill. And I can't get back to sleep. Maybe I should go check out the training room. I change into some gym clothes and start stretching.

* * *

The door hisses open, revealing an assortment of weight training equipment. I hear grunts of exertion from the other side of the room. Looking up, I see Shepard lifting a barbell with three one hundred pound weights on either side. Hearing me enter, he sets the barbell on its rack and sits up, "What's up, Strider?"

"Commander," I salute, but it gets waved away.

Shepard sighs, "You don't need to do that, Serviceman. Technically, I'm not in the Alliance Marines anymore, so the rank is more ceremonial than anything else. Starting a training regimen?"

"Yeah, I figured I should at least try to get in relatively good shape," I glance at the barbell that he was just using, "Although I don't think I'll ever be able to bench press that much."

The Commander laughs, "The wonders of gene therapy. Standard issue for N7s. We're about one sixth stronger than a very fit human."

I drop onto a rowing machine and start working on my shoulder and upper arm muscles. Shepard goes back to his barbell. For a while, it's quiet aside from the clanging from our individual weights. I have to pause for a moment to remove the sunglasses, as they're starting to get in the way. One look at the mirrored walls is enough for me to start talking again.

"Commander, about before with Chakwas..." I start, "I...I overreacted. I grew up reading about the "different people" were always discriminated against, taken away for experimentation, or what have you. I was afraid that you or the crew would try to do that to me."

Shepard smiles, "I can understand that. And I'll be the first to admit that humanity has it's flaws, like being overly ambitious for one. But as long as you're a part of the crew, I'm not letting you get dissected."

I breathe a sigh of relief, "That's good to hear, Commander."

"So any ideas on how you got this way?" he asks, still hefting the barbell.

I shake my head, "Nope, none. Like I said before, I don't believe it's physically possible. Although, there's probably an ungodly amount of things that could have done it, but I can't name anything specific."

Shepard shrugs slightly, "Guess we'll find out eventually." Yeah, probably at the same time as when I tell you I'm not from this universe.

Silence falls on the weight room once again, until I hear Shepard start snickering, a noise I never expected to hear from him. I look over at him only to see him looking back with a mischievous grin plastered on his face.

"What?" I inquire warily.

"So how it going?"

"How's what going?" I'm suspicious now. Wait. He's not gonna say what I think he is, is he? Ah, hell.

"You know, you and Tali," There. He finally said it. I freaking called it.

"Care to elaborate, Commander?" I ask innocently, barely managing to keep my face from turning bright red.

"Oh don't give me that," he scoffs, "I saw the mission recordings from the helmet cams. All of them. Suffice to say that Tali's tended to wander in a certain direction. And then there was the elevator inside of the mine."

Remembering that particular scene, I feel my face heat up considerably.

"Ah ha! So there was something there!" He exclaims.

"Wait a minute..." I say, "You say that like you weren't sure." I stop and facepalm, "You didn't actually see the mission recordings, did you?"

"Nope," Shepard beams, "I was just trying to get a reaction out of you."

I'm silent for a few moments, and then speak, "Sir, would I get in trouble if I called you an asshole?"

He considers it, "At this moment, no."

"Then with all due respect, you are an asshole, sir." I state. We stare at each other for a second or two before busting out laughing simultaneously.

* * *

We spend the next half hour trading jokes and stories while we work out. Turns out, Shepard's a Dresden Files fan. I honestly did not expect that in the slightest. We're in the middle of a debate over who the best character in the series is when Shepard's omni-tool starts beeping.

"Well, looks like my workout is done for today," He says as he stands up, "See you later, Strider."

I look at my own omni-tool, and see that I've still got about twenty minutes until I'm done. I make a lazy salute, "Aye aye, Commander."

When Shepard leaves the room, I stand up and stretch. I walk over to a punching bag hanging from the ceiling and make a few mock hits. Then I really start going at it. Roundhouse kick, spin hook kick, middle punch, double front kick, jump roundhouse kick, low punch, high punch, side kick. The bag slams into the wall after the last one before settling back in front of me.

I repeat the barrage for the remaining time, alternating sides and combinations every few minutes. Just as I finish up the last set, I hear the door open. I snap my sunglasses back onto my face.

"Damn, Strider. What martial art was that?" A feminine voice asks from behind me. I turn around to see Ashley with her hands on her hips.

"Just some improvised combinations with moves taken from Tae Kwon Do," I answer.

Her eyebrows shoot up, "They still teach that?"

"Yeah, if you know where to look. I got lucky. There was a place pretty close to home that taught it."

Ashley pauses before speaking again, "So I saw Shepard go out a while ago. You guys talk about much? I heard there was a blowout in the med lab between you two."

I smirk. So it's started has it? "Not really, we traded stories for a while, but then he had to go do something else. But we're good now."

The soldier deflates slightly, but she manages to keep her expression from changing, "Well that's good to hear. Don't want anyone pissed at each other during a firefight. Might cause an "accident," if you get my meaning."

I just nod, keeping my smug thoughts to myself, "Hey Ash, after we get back from the Citadel, you mind helping me with assault rifle training?"

She gives a half grin, "Sure."

With that, I walk out of the room and head straight for the showers.

* * *

About half an hour later, I'm cleaned up and in fresh clothes, waiting with some of the others at the airlock. I ended up heading out with Shepard and Garrus to buy some new, higher grade guns. Garrus explained that he told the Commander about the revolving heat-sink mechanism and showed him the test results, and that he was interested in the potential.

Everyone else is basically free to do what they want, so Wrex is heading out to the nearest bar along with Kaiden. Liara wanted to just stay on the ship and analyze some of the things she managed to recover from Therum. Tali, deciding there wasn't really much else for her to do, tagged along with us in our venture. Shepard gave me a knowing grin when she told us, to which I shot back an armor-piercing glare.

Right now we're in the Zakera Ward, looking for some buyers for the Geth rifles I picked up on Therum. Thankfully, we manage to find the gunshop owner from the second game.

"How can I help you?" the store owner asks helpfully.

"Are you interested in buying some Geth rifles?" I ask, retrieving one from my omni-tool's inventory.

The turian's jaw drops and his mandibles flare wide at the sight of it, "D-do they still work?"

"See for yourself," I reply, handing it to him. He points it to a target in the back of the shop and pulls the trigger. A three round burst goes off, followed by a series of clicks and warbling noises.

Garrus blinks in shock, "Wow."

I look over at him, "What did he say?"

"It's probably for the best that you didn't have a translation of that..." he says.

The turian clerk whips back around to us, "You said you had "some rifles". How many more?"

I lay the other two down on the countertop, "And both of them work as well."

The turian almost squeals in delight, "I can give you seven thousand for each of them. Any collector would pay a damn fortune for these."

I whistle, "Twenty-one thousand, eh? Hmmm..." I ponder for a moment, "Do you make any special orders for a customer?"

"Oh, yes," he answers, "I have a contract with Haliat Armory and a few other minor weapons companies. If a customer has a design they want, I just send it through my contacts to the manufacturers. It's a bit expensive though."

"How expensive?"

"About ten thousand, plus two thousand more in the case of a complicated design. So what do you need?"

I press a button on my omni-tool to project a 3-D image of the new sniper rifle design. I had Garrus touch it up before we left, rather than leave it as the piece of crap that it was earlier, "It needs to have a barrel made of a tungsten-titanium alloy. Also, if possible, see if they can install this." I hold up the revolving heat-sink mechanism, which we removed from the original prototype.

"Alright, I'll deduct the amount from the money that I just paid you, and I'll send it up through the...grapevine, I think the phrase is? Should be done in a few days."

Shepard and Garrus make their respective purchases and we left the store minutes later, nine thousand credits richer. We're about to head to the nearest cab when a voice off to the side shouts, "Robert!"

I look over and drop my jaw when I see a very familiar figure running towards me.

* * *

**John: **

Hangovers suck, by that I mean, I have no clue how I got one. Truthfully, I woke up this morning feeling like someone had split my head open with a hammer and chisel. I didn't go to a party the night before either, my head just started pounding when I awoke.

The first thing I asked myself was, "What did I do last night?" I never picked up single drink at the party, none.

Wait, I just said I never went to a party... "Shit, this hangover is killing me." There isn't a tiger in my bathroom is there? Or a baby in the closet?

Another strange thing is that doesn't really make sense is the fact I don't remember my dream from the previous night. I always remember the strange ones, which struck me as really off.

Eh, that's not important right now. It's been around a day since I left for Comicon and I'm looking forward to the festivities.

Getting up from the bed in the hotel I stayed in, I rubbed my head with a groan and went to the bathroom. Warily cracking the door open, I checked for a tiger. None. Okay, it wasn't _that_crazy. Doing the morning routine of the three S's, I left the bathroom cleanly shaven and smelling great from the shower.

Opening the closet, I saw no baby. Good. Changing into my leather mantle duster, I pulled on my cosplay outfit. Exiting and checking out of the hotel, I traversed the streets towards Comicon.

The walk was a long one, and uncomfortable considering the humidity made it difficult to wear the leather duster. Feeling famished, I walked into a nearby cafe and ordered something. Getting up, I retreated to the bathroom.

"I never should've eaten those burritos last night."

A few hours later, I stepped out of the bathroom and into the middle of a wrecked bar. Scratching my head in confusion. "This is a really crappy bar... Wait, wasn't I just in a cafe?" Shaking my head, I left the remnants of the crappy bar, not really noticing the sign that said 'Chora's Den, though I'm sure that would have tipped me off.

Making my way through the streets, I couldn't help but stare in wonder at the authenticity of everyone's costumes. I saw extremely realistic versions of Quarians, Turians, Asari, Salarians, and even a Krogan or two.

Of course that was when I saw my roommate.

Waving my hand, I call out to him, "Robert! I didn't know you went to Comicon! You bastard, we could have carpooled!"

* * *

**Robert:**

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Fucking. Kidding. Me.

That is the first thing that pops into my head when I see my roommate running over to us.

"What are you doing here, John?" I ask, barely managing to keep my voice level.

"You know him?" Tali asks.

"Yeah, that's my roommate from college."

"Why is he dressed up like Harry Dresden?" Shepard inquires, bewilderment evident.

"He was headed to Comicon back on Earth when I left," I answer, "How he got here I've got no fucking idea."

"I need to go talk to him for a sec, hang on," I state as I intercept John before he can reach the group. I hiss at him, "What are you doing here?"

"This is Comicon, right? There's a guy dressed as Shepard right there...and Garrus Fuckin' Vakarian, that's an awesome costume right there!" John whispers back, "So uh, why are we whispering?"

I take a deep breath and make sure no one can hear either of us, "Because this isn't Comicon."

"I took a wrong turn or something?" John questions, clueless.

I facepalm, "No, we're in the Mass Effect universe, like in that fanfiction I was writing." I pause and look at his outfit, "Oddly enough, you're wearing the same clothes as in the story, too."

"Really?" he looks down at his clothes with renewed appreciation, "Although I probably shouldn't have eaten that burrito last night..."

"YOU GOT HERE THE SAME DAMN WAY, TOO?"

"Calm down, calm down. I got you a burrito t- oh, wait. I ate that one too...Sorry," John grins sheepishly.

"Enough with the burrito!" I whisper viciously.

To which John instantly replies, "But it was a really good burrito."

"Enough!" I shout. John cringes and looks over at Shepard and the group. I grimace. They definitely heard that, "Now I'll need to explain to them what the hell you're doing here."

John put up his hands, "Hey, I'm sorry I took an extra-dimensional shit. It's one of those things that can't be helped. Besides, I feel ten pounds lighter. Let me guess: Matrix door, right?"

I groan and nod my head, "Yeah, pretty much." I glance up right as he's about to say something, "ENOUGH ABOUT THE BURRITO!"

He backs up, "It's the red pill, that's all I'm saying. You know, now that I know that I'm not at Comicon, something seems a bit different about you."

I sigh and pull down my sunglasses slightly. John leaps back, and manages to keep his voice down, "HOLY SHIT!"

"So, Strider. Anything you need to tell us?"

Before I can respond, John says with awe, "You're Commander Shepard."

"And you, it seems, are Harry Dresden," Shepard shot back with an amused smirk.

"Hmm. Touche. FUEGO!" Something darts out of John's left sleeve and hits the ground, causing a small explosion.

Garrus states nonchalantly, "You know, fireworks are illegal on the Citadel."

John pauses, then holds his sleeve over a trashcan and tilts his arm down, "I'm not carrying any." Then the trash can catches fire as several of the explosives go off when they hit the bottom. His eyes go wide and he beats a hasty retreat away from the garbage receptacle.

I cover my eyes and shake my head, "Alright. Everybody, this is my roommate, John Smith. John, everybody. Now let's get out of here before people take notice of that fire."

* * *

I manage to convince Shepard to let John onto the Normandy, if only so I can keep an eye on him. There's no telling what kind of destruction he could unleash if left to his own devices. The Commander's surprisingly fine with it. I guess he wants to have someone to talk to about Dresden Files books.

We're all crammed into the cab, with me wedged between John and Tali. Not that I mind being so close to Tali, but I do like my personal space. Shepard and Garrus are getting a kick out my discomfort, while I look at them with a gaze that promises bloody retribution.

Just as I'm about to say something, Tali, John and I all have our stomachs growl at the same time. Loudly. Tali's skin goes almost pitch-black and covers her abdomen. I mentally punch myself, while John belches. Garrus roars with laughter, and Shepard chuckling right along with the turian.

"If you guys were hungry, you could have just told us," Shepard says reassuringly, though I can see that he's holding back a torrent of amusement, "We can get the rest of the stuff, you guys go ahead and find a place to eat."

All three of us grumble as the cab sets down and clamber out. After consulting the map, we find a place that serves levo-amino and dextro-amino food. It sounds pleasant enough, but the neighborhood around it, though...

I shrug, we're carrying enough guns to scare most thugs off. I hope. We make it to the cafe in relative safety, all things considered. As we make our orders, they seem a little hesitant to serve Tali, but a stare from me is enough to make the asari waitress shut up and go get our food. Thankfully, Tali seemed a bit out of it at the time and she didn't notice. Still, that in and of itself worried me a bit.

"You alright, Tali?" I ask, letting a little worry show on my face.

"Y-yes," Tali answers, as though being jolted out of a daydream, "I'm fine. Just thinking."

I'm not really convinced, but I'll leave it alone for now. A few minutes later, the food is here and John is telling stories of Freshman year. Tali is laughing, and almost falls out of her chair at one point. A few well-placed frowns from me only make her laugh harder. We really didn't care that everyone else in the restaurant was staring at us, we were having fun. Even though I didn't show it.

"So he said that his first shot of Jack Daniels felt like there was 'hair growing on the inside of his esophagus'," John recites. I groan and cover my face.

"Now, let me tell you about the balloon incident..." he grins.

My eyes shoot up at him in horror, "That story will never see the light of day again. You swore. You goddamn swore."

"The balloon incident?" Tali asks coyly, clearly interested in this story that I'm trying so hard to keep down.

John's about to respond when I glare, "You tell her about that, and I'll get Chakwas to help me make a certain powder. I'm sure you remember which one."

His eyes bulge with fright and he shivers, "Not the shit powder..."

I give my roommate a feral grin, "Exactly."

The rest of the meal is concluded with John shooting me scared looks every so often, and Tali trying her best not to giggle at his reactions. I set aside the rest of my fries, only to watch John devour them in seconds. I sigh and shake my head. That much will never change.

I pay the bill, since John doesn't have any credits, and I feel it's polite to pay for Tali's meal. I take one last sip from my iced tea and stand up, and John and Tali follow suit. As we exit, I get a chill down my spine, the kind you get when you just _know _someone is watching you. I try to shake it away, but it persists.

A few minutes later, I instantly regret not listening too that feeling.

"Stop walking," A voice demands from behind us. Turning around, there's a human, with two turians flanking him. The turians have assault rifles leveled at us, and the human has a pistol, "My...associates and I would like to have a word with you concerning any credits that you might have."

Grudgingly, John and I put up our hands as the turians grab a hold of us while the leader keeps Tali from running. We're led into an alley, where there are two more humans sitting on crates. One of them is toting a shotgun and the other has an assault rifle. I calmly survey them all, taking in all information possible.

John whispers to me, "What do you think? Plan Gamma?"

I shake my head, "No, too many of them and we're in too tight a space. Delta. On the count of three." He gives an affirmative nod, "One...two..."

"Hey!" the leader shouts, "What are you two whispering about?"

"Three!" I exclaim. John and I simultaneously elbow the turian holding our respective arms, dazing them. I rip my arm out of his grasp and charge towards the shotgun wielder, who's still in momentary shock. My left foot collides with his jaw and I grab the weapon out of his hands with my right hand.

The thug drops to the ground and I whip around to my next target. The turian I downed earlier is out of his daze and tries to aim his assault rifle at me, so I chuck the shotgun at his gun to throw off his aim. It works, so I roundhouse kick the weapon out of his hands and deck him.

"Oww!" I hiss and shake my hand out. The plates on their face aren't for show! Thankfully, I hit him hard enough that he's off in la-la land now.

I hear a grunt from John's end and turn to see how he's doing. I only raise my eyebrows when I see him sitting on the turian's back, humming a tune. The other human starts stirring behind him, so I shout and point, "Destruccion de los cajones!"

"Improvising now, eh? I can deal with that," he gets up and delivers a mighty kick to the man's nether regions, eliciting a wince from all involved that were still conscious, and a scream of pain from the victim.

John and I high five as we survey our work. I feel like we're forgetting something...

"D-Don't move!" the leader stutters. Only now, he's holding the pistol to Tali's head and an arm around her throat.

John watches my fist slowly curl up and takes a quick step away from me.

My gaze stays on the mugger. Fucking monster.

_That's right. He's got Tali, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Or is there?_

Fine. Just do what you need to do.

My body starts moving on it own, and my vision blacks out.

* * *

**Tali:**

I felt the click of the gun against my helmet. Oh keelah, I'm going to die! I hear the man's voice, but I can't make out the words. Robert's face shifts to one of rage, and something seems to change about him.

He crouches, as though he doing what the man wants. He's surrendering? No. I think I've got a grasp of his personality. He doesn't surrender.

The world starts spinning. The man's arm is too tight around my neck. He screams suddenly. My vision straightens out. There's a knife sticking out of his hand. The pistol's no longer against my head and his arm loosens. I manage to slip out of his grasp and tumble away.

When I look up, Robert is stalking towards the leader. The man tries to get away, but he's caught and pinned to the ground with his right arm pressed against his back. Robert rips the knife out of the man's hand and starts carving something into the arm as the thug screams. He finally gets up again after a minute.

"That's so you'll remember me." That voice. That's not Robert's voice. What happened?

* * *

**Robert:**

As soon as I feel the words escape my lips, I return to consciousness and stumble back. I look down to my left hand, in which I'm still grasping a bloody knife.

What did I do?

I look in horror at the man's arm. Engraved in now drying blood is a skull and crossbones surrounded by a gear cog. Why did Trebor do that? Why did he go so far?

Because it's what I wouldn't do.

I swallow the rising bile and clean off the knife, and stash it back into my boot. Shakily, I get back to my feet. In the fight, my glasses must have fallen off. I feel naked without them now. Everything is brighter. And the mark stands out more.

I look at John and Tali pleadingly and whisper just loud enough for them to hear, "Don't tell Shepard."

Tali just retreats from me slightly. I stop and put the glasses back on. Maybe it's the combination of my silver eyes and my human features, but I don't know how I look now. I turn my back to leave the alley when Tali speaks again.

"Thank you," she says clearly, "You saved me again. First from the assassins, the volcano, and now these men."

"But I didn't do it," I mutter to quietly to be heard. Then I say a bit louder, "Come on. Shepard and Garrus are probably waiting for us on the Normandy."

I go to walk out again, but I'm stopped by a three-fingered hand on my shoulder, "Tali?" I ask as I turn around.

She looks like she wants to say something, but instead, she hastily wraps her arms around me and quickly lets go. She starts stuttering, as though just realizing what she did, "O-One of t-these days, you're going to let me save you."

I manage to make a smile for her. While the rage and regret are still there, it's...lessened now. As we all walk out, I realize something.

I showed Tali my eyes.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, there's Chapter 7. Got it done a lot faster than I thought I would. And the section from John's point of view was actually written by my roommate, CrimsonBlade11. I don't really have much else to say, so I hope you'll keep reading and reviewing!**


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